1 00:00:01,420 --> 00:00:02,710 - All right. 2 00:00:02,710 --> 00:00:05,930 So welcome to another episode 3 00:00:05,930 --> 00:00:07,780 of our Maple Webinar Series. 4 00:00:07,780 --> 00:00:10,310 And this is an ongoing series. 5 00:00:10,310 --> 00:00:13,210 We did quite a few in 2020, 6 00:00:13,210 --> 00:00:16,060 and this is our 2021 series. 7 00:00:16,060 --> 00:00:17,480 Tonight, I'm gonna be talking about 8 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,530 Sugarbush Inventory Methods. 9 00:00:19,530 --> 00:00:23,170 And the funding for this work 10 00:00:23,170 --> 00:00:24,610 and in this whole series 11 00:00:24,610 --> 00:00:27,590 is through USDA AMS 12 00:00:27,590 --> 00:00:28,940 Acer Development Grant. 13 00:00:28,940 --> 00:00:30,773 So we thank them for their support. 14 00:00:32,260 --> 00:00:35,530 Like I said, we have more webinars to come. 15 00:00:35,530 --> 00:00:36,930 Tonight, we're talking about 16 00:00:36,930 --> 00:00:38,500 sugarbush Inventory. 17 00:00:38,500 --> 00:00:41,610 In two weeks, we have Chris Lindgren 18 00:00:41,610 --> 00:00:43,620 talking about sap-only enterprises, 19 00:00:43,620 --> 00:00:45,360 if you're really focusing in 20 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:46,720 on the sap production 21 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:48,390 and less on the syrup production 22 00:00:48,390 --> 00:00:50,040 aspect of maple. 23 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:52,030 Then we get into some binding contracts 24 00:00:52,030 --> 00:00:53,313 and legal Agreements. 25 00:00:54,430 --> 00:00:57,580 On October 13th, we have Tony D'Amato 26 00:00:57,580 --> 00:01:00,600 talking about maple forests and carbon, 27 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:01,470 forest carbon, 28 00:01:01,470 --> 00:01:03,530 which is an interesting topic. 29 00:01:03,530 --> 00:01:08,020 And then we have forest land taxes 30 00:01:08,020 --> 00:01:09,770 and tax abatement programs 31 00:01:09,770 --> 00:01:11,980 at the end of October. 32 00:01:11,980 --> 00:01:13,130 And we're probably 33 00:01:13,130 --> 00:01:15,220 gonna be adding some more dates 34 00:01:15,220 --> 00:01:17,600 that has not been firmed up yet, 35 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:20,733 but a good slew of topics to come. 36 00:01:22,570 --> 00:01:24,750 So assuming there's no other issues 37 00:01:24,750 --> 00:01:28,580 or people have any problems technically, 38 00:01:28,580 --> 00:01:30,150 please just put those in the chat, 39 00:01:30,150 --> 00:01:32,750 and we will get right to it. 40 00:01:32,750 --> 00:01:34,500 Otherwise, we're gonna get started. 41 00:01:36,250 --> 00:01:37,470 Like all good presentations, 42 00:01:37,470 --> 00:01:39,220 gotta start with a little bit of a background 43 00:01:39,220 --> 00:01:40,253 or introduction. 44 00:01:41,633 --> 00:01:43,600 So the question is what is an inventory? 45 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:45,540 And this is not unique to forestry, 46 00:01:45,540 --> 00:01:49,260 but in the context of this presentation, 47 00:01:49,260 --> 00:01:50,800 it's a way of measuring and recording 48 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:52,090 something of interest. 49 00:01:52,090 --> 00:01:54,390 We're talking about taps primarily, 50 00:01:54,390 --> 00:01:55,260 although we'll be talking 51 00:01:55,260 --> 00:01:57,240 about maple trees in general. 52 00:01:57,240 --> 00:01:59,200 But you could easily have an inventory 53 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:00,920 of all the wetlands on your property, 54 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:02,160 or you could have an inventory 55 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:06,690 of all the interesting archeological sites 56 00:02:06,690 --> 00:02:08,730 in or around your area. 57 00:02:08,730 --> 00:02:10,890 You could have an inventory of all the culverts. 58 00:02:10,890 --> 00:02:13,507 That's just a systematic way of measuring 59 00:02:13,507 --> 00:02:15,503 something of interest. 60 00:02:17,180 --> 00:02:19,300 Taking stock of what you have currently 61 00:02:19,300 --> 00:02:20,230 is really important 62 00:02:20,230 --> 00:02:22,000 for planning future activity. 63 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,810 So it's really important to have good ideas 64 00:02:24,810 --> 00:02:27,410 and data on what you have. 65 00:02:27,410 --> 00:02:28,580 And that's really the only way 66 00:02:28,580 --> 00:02:31,363 to go forward with a good plan. 67 00:02:32,980 --> 00:02:34,760 Probably not a surprise to hear that 68 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:36,930 an inventory often involves 69 00:02:36,930 --> 00:02:38,290 some sort of estimation. 70 00:02:38,290 --> 00:02:40,310 In other words, we're taking a small sample 71 00:02:40,310 --> 00:02:42,260 and trying to use that data 72 00:02:42,260 --> 00:02:44,650 to represent the larger property 73 00:02:44,650 --> 00:02:45,700 or the larger region 74 00:02:45,700 --> 00:02:47,827 or whatever you're inventorying. 75 00:02:48,810 --> 00:02:50,070 Time and money, 76 00:02:50,070 --> 00:02:52,410 there's just no way you can measure everything 77 00:02:54,180 --> 00:02:57,030 once you get beyond a certain scale. 78 00:02:57,030 --> 00:02:59,520 Along those lines, time and money, 79 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:00,870 you can certainly do 80 00:03:00,870 --> 00:03:02,350 what we're talking about tonight 81 00:03:02,350 --> 00:03:03,640 do it yourself, 82 00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:06,230 do a little DIY inventory. 83 00:03:06,230 --> 00:03:08,420 You could also hire a professional forester. 84 00:03:08,420 --> 00:03:10,270 And much like 85 00:03:10,270 --> 00:03:11,610 putting the siding on a house 86 00:03:11,610 --> 00:03:14,290 or doing some concrete work, 87 00:03:14,290 --> 00:03:16,580 you could probably do it yourself. 88 00:03:16,580 --> 00:03:18,230 Sometimes it might take more time 89 00:03:18,230 --> 00:03:20,090 and more money than you thought 90 00:03:20,090 --> 00:03:21,680 and hiring a professional 91 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:25,730 is often well worth the money. 92 00:03:25,730 --> 00:03:28,620 So consider a professional forester 93 00:03:28,620 --> 00:03:31,193 who's trained in this type of work. 94 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:34,870 Why you would do it, 95 00:03:34,870 --> 00:03:36,220 we've already talked about 96 00:03:36,220 --> 00:03:37,730 a few of the reasons why. 97 00:03:37,730 --> 00:03:39,720 Another way is just a basic engagement 98 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:41,280 with your property. 99 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:42,540 If you're accustomed 100 00:03:42,540 --> 00:03:44,410 to really just walking around 101 00:03:44,410 --> 00:03:46,130 a certain part of your property, 102 00:03:46,130 --> 00:03:48,030 doing a systematic sample 103 00:03:48,030 --> 00:03:49,990 of your entire property 104 00:03:49,990 --> 00:03:51,630 allows you to see 105 00:03:51,630 --> 00:03:53,710 your property from a different perspective, 106 00:03:53,710 --> 00:03:55,720 it allows you to engage differently 107 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:57,223 with your whole parcel. 108 00:03:58,490 --> 00:03:59,960 From a business side, 109 00:03:59,960 --> 00:04:01,380 having a good inventory 110 00:04:01,380 --> 00:04:03,350 of what you have for tappable trees 111 00:04:03,350 --> 00:04:05,340 is really important for estimating 112 00:04:05,340 --> 00:04:07,480 tubing installation costs. 113 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:08,460 It's also important, 114 00:04:08,460 --> 00:04:10,560 if you're looking at a potential property, 115 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:14,320 say you have excess capacity in the sugar house 116 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:16,260 and you're interested in 117 00:04:16,260 --> 00:04:19,870 a new property to lease or to buy. 118 00:04:19,870 --> 00:04:22,110 You wanna have a good idea of what you have 119 00:04:22,110 --> 00:04:24,010 for tappable trees there 120 00:04:24,010 --> 00:04:26,270 to get quotes on materials 121 00:04:26,270 --> 00:04:28,760 from tubing manufacturers. 122 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:30,730 If you're hiring a tubing installer, 123 00:04:30,730 --> 00:04:32,629 you really wanna have a good, accurate number 124 00:04:32,629 --> 00:04:34,530 of what that's gonna be. 125 00:04:34,530 --> 00:04:36,820 I've heard certainly plenty of stories 126 00:04:36,820 --> 00:04:37,687 of people saying, 127 00:04:37,687 --> 00:04:39,550 "Ah, I think I've got about a thousand taps 128 00:04:39,550 --> 00:04:40,840 maybe in these woods," 129 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:41,810 when they actually get 130 00:04:41,810 --> 00:04:43,380 into the business of going out there 131 00:04:43,380 --> 00:04:45,040 and starting to lay things out, 132 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,240 sometimes it's 2,000, 133 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:49,180 sometimes it's more. 134 00:04:49,180 --> 00:04:52,040 There's time and expense associated with that. 135 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:54,320 Sometimes pricing is better if you 136 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:55,560 hit certain thresholds 137 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:57,540 so keep in mind that 138 00:04:58,540 --> 00:05:00,390 beyond just knowing how many taps you have, 139 00:05:00,390 --> 00:05:01,520 it's important in terms 140 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:03,883 of cost of installation of tubing. 141 00:05:05,660 --> 00:05:06,850 It's also important to understand 142 00:05:06,850 --> 00:05:08,270 the general health of trees, 143 00:05:08,270 --> 00:05:10,940 what you have for regeneration, 144 00:05:10,940 --> 00:05:13,120 and, really, what the general 145 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:15,950 average diameters are in your woods. 146 00:05:15,950 --> 00:05:18,743 So we'll talk a little bit about why that's important. 147 00:05:19,890 --> 00:05:21,220 The health and regeneration, 148 00:05:21,220 --> 00:05:23,070 typically, if you were just trying to figure out 149 00:05:23,070 --> 00:05:24,890 how many taps you had, 150 00:05:24,890 --> 00:05:26,780 you may not record that. 151 00:05:26,780 --> 00:05:29,690 A forester may use that 152 00:05:29,690 --> 00:05:32,060 in terms of a larger forest inventory. 153 00:05:32,060 --> 00:05:34,470 It really depends on what your goals are 154 00:05:34,470 --> 00:05:36,810 and what kind of information 155 00:05:36,810 --> 00:05:38,980 you're looking to collect. 156 00:05:38,980 --> 00:05:41,340 The simplest would be just a simple tap count. 157 00:05:41,340 --> 00:05:42,600 How many trees are there 158 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:45,150 that are of tappable size right now 159 00:05:46,590 --> 00:05:48,620 compared to maybe a more complete 160 00:05:48,620 --> 00:05:50,660 or intense inventory 161 00:05:50,660 --> 00:05:53,620 that would involve not just tappable trees, 162 00:05:53,620 --> 00:05:55,800 but site quality, soils, 163 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:58,853 and lots of other aspects. 164 00:06:00,230 --> 00:06:02,220 It's also important to know, 165 00:06:02,220 --> 00:06:03,460 what's the state of the forest? 166 00:06:03,460 --> 00:06:05,960 Are you a very young stand 167 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:08,200 that's really just becoming 168 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:10,830 a small pole size. 169 00:06:10,830 --> 00:06:11,860 Is it intermediate? 170 00:06:11,860 --> 00:06:13,737 Is it more of the old growth? 171 00:06:13,737 --> 00:06:17,690 Has it had very little management over time? 172 00:06:17,690 --> 00:06:20,450 Was there a large harvest recently? 173 00:06:20,450 --> 00:06:22,940 All these things can be important 174 00:06:22,940 --> 00:06:26,600 as you're planning a future tubing system 175 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:28,850 or expanding an existing one. 176 00:06:28,850 --> 00:06:31,590 So again, this would be 177 00:06:31,590 --> 00:06:32,790 issues that would come up 178 00:06:32,790 --> 00:06:34,750 if you were hiring a forester 179 00:06:34,750 --> 00:06:37,070 to do a full forest inventory, 180 00:06:37,070 --> 00:06:41,010 or if you were looking to do it yourself, 181 00:06:41,010 --> 00:06:43,010 information you'd wanna record 182 00:06:43,010 --> 00:06:44,120 as you're going through 183 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:46,160 checking on the number of taps you had. 184 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:48,350 You'd also wanna be including something about 185 00:06:48,350 --> 00:06:50,097 what's the structure, 186 00:06:50,097 --> 00:06:52,833 the age of the stands you're in. 187 00:06:53,740 --> 00:06:55,340 And why does tree size matter? 188 00:06:55,340 --> 00:06:58,530 Well, we know from previous research, 189 00:06:58,530 --> 00:07:01,710 not just at UVM but elsewhere, 190 00:07:01,710 --> 00:07:03,800 that the size of the tree really matters 191 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:05,820 in terms of how much sap you get. 192 00:07:05,820 --> 00:07:07,480 And that's a fairly linear, 193 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:10,270 although it's not perfectly linear, relationship. 194 00:07:10,270 --> 00:07:13,650 Larger trees will produce more sap. 195 00:07:13,650 --> 00:07:18,090 And I've also talked with sugar makers who 196 00:07:18,090 --> 00:07:22,420 at first estimated they had say 10,000 taps, 197 00:07:22,420 --> 00:07:23,650 but when you actually went out 198 00:07:23,650 --> 00:07:25,630 and looked at the inventory data 199 00:07:25,630 --> 00:07:28,020 and looked at the trees they were tapping, 200 00:07:28,020 --> 00:07:31,560 the abundance of small trees being tapped 201 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:33,810 really meant that they were overestimating 202 00:07:33,810 --> 00:07:35,290 how much they could get. 203 00:07:35,290 --> 00:07:36,760 And this can have a real impact 204 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:40,110 if you're working with a lender 205 00:07:40,110 --> 00:07:42,230 to get money to do this layout 206 00:07:42,230 --> 00:07:45,400 and your yields are based on 207 00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:49,100 a certain amount of sap production per year, 208 00:07:49,100 --> 00:07:51,260 if you're calling every tap, 209 00:07:51,260 --> 00:07:53,370 estimating it's gonna have a certain yield, 210 00:07:53,370 --> 00:07:54,330 if some of those taps 211 00:07:54,330 --> 00:07:55,980 or a good proportion of those taps 212 00:07:55,980 --> 00:07:57,320 are in small trees, 213 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:01,410 you are probably never gonna hit that estimate. 214 00:08:01,410 --> 00:08:02,500 And within the forest, 215 00:08:02,500 --> 00:08:03,840 not all stands are the same. 216 00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:07,080 Some stands have a higher proportion of small trees, 217 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:08,240 and some of them are 218 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,190 it's a little bit heavier to larger trees. 219 00:08:11,190 --> 00:08:13,684 So knowing that distribution of diameters 220 00:08:13,684 --> 00:08:15,140 is really important. 221 00:08:15,140 --> 00:08:18,370 And this is a classic inventory technique 222 00:08:18,370 --> 00:08:19,690 that is used in forestry. 223 00:08:19,690 --> 00:08:20,840 If you're growing trees 224 00:08:22,708 --> 00:08:24,323 for timber production, 225 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:28,860 foresters need to know what diameter classes 226 00:08:28,860 --> 00:08:30,250 have how many trees. 227 00:08:30,250 --> 00:08:32,260 So this is really helpful 228 00:08:32,260 --> 00:08:34,340 in terms of yield as well. 229 00:08:34,340 --> 00:08:35,500 We are currently working 230 00:08:35,500 --> 00:08:37,220 on an online calculator 231 00:08:37,220 --> 00:08:38,500 that would allow you to enter 232 00:08:38,500 --> 00:08:41,690 some of this data by diameter 233 00:08:41,690 --> 00:08:43,470 and you'd get some estimate 234 00:08:43,470 --> 00:08:45,700 based on how many 10-inch trees 235 00:08:45,700 --> 00:08:48,733 versus how many 20-inch trees, and so on, 236 00:08:51,562 --> 00:08:52,600 how much sap you could 237 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:57,040 realistically expect to produce. 238 00:08:57,040 --> 00:08:59,830 Another interesting difference in inventory 239 00:08:59,830 --> 00:09:02,620 is the distinction between plots and points. 240 00:09:02,620 --> 00:09:04,120 And we're gonna spend a lot of time 241 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:06,590 a little bit later on in this talk 242 00:09:06,590 --> 00:09:07,900 teasing out the differences 243 00:09:07,900 --> 00:09:09,810 between plots and points. 244 00:09:09,810 --> 00:09:12,170 But the important thing to remember is 245 00:09:12,170 --> 00:09:15,660 the number of sampling places, 246 00:09:15,660 --> 00:09:17,950 be they plots or points, 247 00:09:17,950 --> 00:09:20,860 is really gonna depend a lot of time 248 00:09:20,860 --> 00:09:24,000 on how variable those stands are. 249 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,720 If you have a perfect uniform stand, 250 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:29,350 they're all the same size, 251 00:09:29,350 --> 00:09:30,420 you really don't need 252 00:09:31,710 --> 00:09:34,400 to take as many points or plots 253 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:36,270 as you would if there's a lot of variability 254 00:09:36,270 --> 00:09:38,120 between different stands. 255 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:40,310 So we'll talk about that a little bit. 256 00:09:40,310 --> 00:09:42,800 If you were to establish permanent plots, 257 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:45,870 that can also help you in terms of 258 00:09:45,870 --> 00:09:48,550 understanding if any forest management activities 259 00:09:48,550 --> 00:09:49,980 you are doing 260 00:09:49,980 --> 00:09:51,703 are having the desired effect. 261 00:09:53,020 --> 00:09:56,790 Forest management plans often will 262 00:09:56,790 --> 00:10:00,370 suggest a certain amount of management over time 263 00:10:00,370 --> 00:10:02,480 that might involve vegetation management, 264 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:04,023 removing trees, thinning. 265 00:10:05,010 --> 00:10:06,150 If you have permanent plots, 266 00:10:06,150 --> 00:10:08,600 it's a good way of knowing if those 267 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:10,883 prescriptions are having the desired effect. 268 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:14,710 So one sort of rule of thumb 269 00:10:14,710 --> 00:10:16,590 is looking for an inch of diameter growth 270 00:10:16,590 --> 00:10:17,703 in 10 years. 271 00:10:18,855 --> 00:10:20,280 That's good growth. 272 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:21,650 It's not fantastic growth, 273 00:10:21,650 --> 00:10:23,870 but it's a good thing to shoot for. 274 00:10:23,870 --> 00:10:26,420 And it's also important to know 275 00:10:26,420 --> 00:10:27,700 how many small trees, 276 00:10:27,700 --> 00:10:30,060 trees that are too small to be tapped, 277 00:10:30,060 --> 00:10:31,590 are sort of in the pipeline. 278 00:10:31,590 --> 00:10:36,590 How many are gonna be available to tap 279 00:10:36,650 --> 00:10:38,810 in maybe the next round of retubing. 280 00:10:38,810 --> 00:10:40,670 So if you replace your laterals 281 00:10:40,670 --> 00:10:42,470 on a 15-year interval 282 00:10:42,470 --> 00:10:44,080 and you have some trees 283 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:46,040 that are in that small seven-inch, 284 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:48,160 eight-inch size class, 285 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:49,640 if you know that they're coming, 286 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:51,640 it might be a good way or a good tool 287 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:54,830 for deciding when you're gonna retube an area. 288 00:10:54,830 --> 00:10:57,040 Also understanding the density of taps 289 00:10:57,040 --> 00:10:59,260 in certain parts of your property. 290 00:10:59,260 --> 00:11:00,900 It might identify areas where it's 291 00:11:00,900 --> 00:11:03,600 really just not worth it to put in 292 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:04,960 a conductor system 293 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:08,070 or even just a main line and laterals 294 00:11:08,070 --> 00:11:11,620 because the tap density just aren't worthwhile. 295 00:11:11,620 --> 00:11:13,460 So on the right here, you see a map, 296 00:11:13,460 --> 00:11:15,090 just kind of a heat map in a way. 297 00:11:15,090 --> 00:11:19,920 This was produced by a company that was 298 00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:23,530 marketing a large property. 299 00:11:23,530 --> 00:11:25,930 This property was 2300 acres. 300 00:11:25,930 --> 00:11:29,210 They divided it up into four stands. 301 00:11:29,210 --> 00:11:31,270 And over those four stands, 302 00:11:31,270 --> 00:11:34,090 they took 425 inventory plots. 303 00:11:34,090 --> 00:11:35,380 So quite a few plots 304 00:11:35,380 --> 00:11:37,800 that would have taken a while to do. 305 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:42,060 That averages out to be about 5 1/2 acres per plot. 306 00:11:42,060 --> 00:11:43,360 And we'll talk a little bit about 307 00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:44,730 why you may or may not 308 00:11:44,730 --> 00:11:49,210 wanna have that many acres per plot. 309 00:11:49,210 --> 00:11:50,340 Another interesting thing 310 00:11:50,340 --> 00:11:51,810 or something to keep in mind 311 00:11:51,810 --> 00:11:56,020 when you're measuring the taps is if, 312 00:11:56,020 --> 00:11:58,260 some trees have significant defects. 313 00:11:58,260 --> 00:12:00,780 Here's a drawing and an illustration 314 00:12:00,780 --> 00:12:01,980 done by George Buzzell 315 00:12:01,980 --> 00:12:04,130 who was a county forester in Vermont. 316 00:12:04,130 --> 00:12:06,830 And he really wanted to get people's attention 317 00:12:06,830 --> 00:12:09,250 thinking about not just a tree as a tap, 318 00:12:09,250 --> 00:12:11,800 but as almost a tapping shell. 319 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:14,430 So there's conductive tissue there. 320 00:12:14,430 --> 00:12:16,530 If part of that conductive tissue, 321 00:12:16,530 --> 00:12:17,960 a significant part, 322 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:21,020 is damaged in some way or unusable, 323 00:12:21,020 --> 00:12:23,050 you really wanna reduce 324 00:12:23,050 --> 00:12:25,320 what the sort of functional DBH 325 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:27,950 or diameter of that tree is. 326 00:12:27,950 --> 00:12:29,580 So this is the kind of detail 327 00:12:29,580 --> 00:12:30,760 that could be included 328 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:32,630 if you have a large proportion of trees 329 00:12:32,630 --> 00:12:34,970 that have significant decay 330 00:12:34,970 --> 00:12:36,050 or they're damaged, 331 00:12:36,050 --> 00:12:37,730 that would also reduce 332 00:12:37,730 --> 00:12:39,460 the sort of the functional 333 00:12:39,460 --> 00:12:41,570 of the actual number of taps 334 00:12:41,570 --> 00:12:44,423 or the size of those trees that you would tap. 335 00:12:46,310 --> 00:12:48,760 Just another example, a sugar maple borer 336 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:50,620 is something that could take 337 00:12:50,620 --> 00:12:54,220 a significant part of the tree's conductive tissue 338 00:12:54,220 --> 00:12:55,430 sort of off the table. 339 00:12:55,430 --> 00:12:58,070 So if you had a stand perhaps 340 00:12:58,070 --> 00:13:00,100 that had a really significant outbreak 341 00:13:00,100 --> 00:13:01,540 of something like sugar maple borer 342 00:13:01,540 --> 00:13:02,850 or something else that 343 00:13:02,850 --> 00:13:05,400 impacted the conductive tissue, 344 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:07,080 you'd wanna be able to 345 00:13:08,500 --> 00:13:10,310 capture some of that information 346 00:13:10,310 --> 00:13:11,513 in your inventory. 347 00:13:12,350 --> 00:13:14,060 Another interesting reason 348 00:13:14,060 --> 00:13:15,750 why you would wanna do an inventory 349 00:13:15,750 --> 00:13:19,020 is to see where the tubing system would be. 350 00:13:19,020 --> 00:13:21,940 Going back to that slide with the heat map, 351 00:13:21,940 --> 00:13:24,240 some areas have more dense 352 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:25,780 collection of tappable trees 353 00:13:25,780 --> 00:13:27,730 so you might, 354 00:13:27,730 --> 00:13:29,560 if there obvious patterns 355 00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:31,000 to where those trees are, 356 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:31,980 that's gonna influence 357 00:13:31,980 --> 00:13:34,130 where you're gonna put your conductor systems 358 00:13:34,130 --> 00:13:36,860 where you're gonna put your main lines. 359 00:13:36,860 --> 00:13:39,620 This process will also allow you 360 00:13:39,620 --> 00:13:40,680 to get a better idea 361 00:13:40,680 --> 00:13:42,760 of what the road system is. 362 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:44,350 There might be some legacy roads 363 00:13:44,350 --> 00:13:46,880 that were put in a long time ago, 364 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:49,820 even before your ownership perhaps. 365 00:13:49,820 --> 00:13:51,560 Legacy roads often get a bad rap 366 00:13:51,560 --> 00:13:54,390 because they weren't necessarily put in 367 00:13:54,390 --> 00:13:55,750 with water quality 368 00:13:55,750 --> 00:13:58,410 and long-term use in mind. 369 00:13:58,410 --> 00:14:01,200 So if it's an old skid road that 370 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:04,610 essentially just went right down the slope 371 00:14:04,610 --> 00:14:07,870 and has perpetual issues with erosion, 372 00:14:07,870 --> 00:14:09,220 those are the kind of roads 373 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:11,110 that could be improved, 374 00:14:11,110 --> 00:14:13,860 or really even just put to bed and abandoned 375 00:14:13,860 --> 00:14:17,660 and in exchange for something that maybe 376 00:14:17,660 --> 00:14:19,390 is easier to travel on, 377 00:14:19,390 --> 00:14:21,100 less prone to erosion. 378 00:14:21,100 --> 00:14:22,280 All these things will come up 379 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:23,780 when you're doing an inventory 380 00:14:25,510 --> 00:14:27,960 and checking the entire property. 381 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:29,760 And in case my abstract drawing, 382 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:32,080 is throwing you off a little bit. 383 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:34,060 This sort of polygon, 384 00:14:34,060 --> 00:14:36,850 is meant to illustrate, 385 00:14:36,850 --> 00:14:38,830 just a generic forested property 386 00:14:38,830 --> 00:14:42,010 and hopefully those green puffy things 387 00:14:42,010 --> 00:14:43,870 you can identify as trees 388 00:14:43,870 --> 00:14:46,700 and the blue squiggly lines would be 389 00:14:46,700 --> 00:14:50,050 theoretically where a main line might be set up. 390 00:14:50,050 --> 00:14:51,180 When you are collecting 391 00:14:51,180 --> 00:14:52,970 this data based on stands, 392 00:14:52,970 --> 00:14:54,730 you're gonna find a very 393 00:14:54,730 --> 00:14:57,050 variable amount of taps per acre, 394 00:14:57,050 --> 00:14:59,430 and there are pros and cons. 395 00:14:59,430 --> 00:15:00,390 Of course, 396 00:15:00,390 --> 00:15:01,930 a lot of folks might think that 397 00:15:01,930 --> 00:15:03,730 the highest number of taps per acre 398 00:15:03,730 --> 00:15:05,220 is always the goal. 399 00:15:05,220 --> 00:15:06,880 But the issue with that is that 400 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:08,830 trees are plants, 401 00:15:08,830 --> 00:15:10,970 and they're limited by sunlight, 402 00:15:10,970 --> 00:15:12,600 water and nutrients, 403 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:16,050 but sunlight is a huge limiting factor. 404 00:15:16,050 --> 00:15:20,240 So when you have too many trees in one area, 405 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:22,230 they're not optimizing their growth. 406 00:15:22,230 --> 00:15:26,980 And so you would potentially run out of tappable wood. 407 00:15:26,980 --> 00:15:29,170 You are stunting the growth 408 00:15:29,170 --> 00:15:32,690 and we know from previous research 409 00:15:32,690 --> 00:15:35,270 that smaller trees typically will have less sap 410 00:15:36,220 --> 00:15:37,860 on a per year basis. 411 00:15:37,860 --> 00:15:40,590 So remember that it's not just maximizing 412 00:15:40,590 --> 00:15:41,880 the number of taps per acre, 413 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:44,170 it's maximizing the yield per acre 414 00:15:44,170 --> 00:15:46,683 and also the growth over the long term. 415 00:15:48,260 --> 00:15:49,520 There's a huge range. 416 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:51,403 You can have sugarbush stands 417 00:15:51,403 --> 00:15:54,700 that have less than 20 taps per acre. 418 00:15:54,700 --> 00:15:56,840 You can have that have more than a hundred 419 00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:58,610 and everything in between. 420 00:15:58,610 --> 00:15:59,850 Generally speaking, 421 00:15:59,850 --> 00:16:02,420 50 taps per acre is considered good. 422 00:16:02,420 --> 00:16:05,150 If you drop below that 20 per acre, 423 00:16:05,150 --> 00:16:08,143 it's really kind of considered not ideal. 424 00:16:09,030 --> 00:16:11,370 It's not enough sap production 425 00:16:12,930 --> 00:16:14,640 given that growing space. 426 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:16,220 So it could be that it's 427 00:16:16,220 --> 00:16:18,290 not an ideal maple site. 428 00:16:18,290 --> 00:16:21,360 It could be that past management has removed, 429 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:22,410 the tappable trees. 430 00:16:22,410 --> 00:16:25,490 And it's really in a regrowth phase. 431 00:16:25,490 --> 00:16:27,390 There's a lot of reasons why you might not get 432 00:16:27,390 --> 00:16:29,170 too many taps per acre. 433 00:16:29,170 --> 00:16:31,177 The old model for sugarbush management, 434 00:16:31,177 --> 00:16:34,260 the really, really large decadent, 435 00:16:34,260 --> 00:16:36,230 large crown, widely spaced, 436 00:16:36,230 --> 00:16:38,123 almost open grown trees. 437 00:16:39,110 --> 00:16:42,230 There are still sugar bushes that fit that model. 438 00:16:42,230 --> 00:16:44,370 It really was more of a function 439 00:16:44,370 --> 00:16:46,830 of how sap was collected, 440 00:16:46,830 --> 00:16:48,610 gravity collection buckets, 441 00:16:48,610 --> 00:16:50,320 eating access to the understory 442 00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:52,023 for sap collection. 443 00:16:52,890 --> 00:16:54,140 Big trees, big crowns 444 00:16:54,140 --> 00:16:55,630 definitely produced more sap 445 00:16:55,630 --> 00:16:57,660 and generally sweeter sap, 446 00:16:57,660 --> 00:17:00,070 but it probably does not maximize 447 00:17:00,070 --> 00:17:01,660 your yield per acre 448 00:17:01,660 --> 00:17:03,900 to have that as your goal. 449 00:17:03,900 --> 00:17:04,733 The other issue 450 00:17:04,733 --> 00:17:07,230 with such few number of trees per acre 451 00:17:07,230 --> 00:17:09,870 is the replacement, 452 00:17:09,870 --> 00:17:11,820 the lack of regeneration 453 00:17:11,820 --> 00:17:15,670 or lack of ingrowth of small trees. 454 00:17:15,670 --> 00:17:17,520 So that's something to also consider. 455 00:17:18,360 --> 00:17:20,400 Of course, mapping is really important. 456 00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:21,807 Whenever you're doing any sort of inventory, 457 00:17:21,807 --> 00:17:24,620 you wanna make sure that you know, 458 00:17:24,620 --> 00:17:26,810 the property that you are using 459 00:17:26,810 --> 00:17:28,270 either it's your ownership 460 00:17:28,270 --> 00:17:32,750 or it's the property that you're leasing. 461 00:17:32,750 --> 00:17:34,340 It seems kind of simple to say, 462 00:17:34,340 --> 00:17:36,410 but you really do wanna make sure 463 00:17:36,410 --> 00:17:38,503 that the property boundaries are known. 464 00:17:39,450 --> 00:17:41,030 Here's just a quick screenshot 465 00:17:41,030 --> 00:17:43,070 of some parcel data, 466 00:17:43,070 --> 00:17:45,170 also known as the tax map data. 467 00:17:45,170 --> 00:17:46,700 These are not surveys, 468 00:17:46,700 --> 00:17:48,400 so they don't represent 469 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:50,380 a careful survey of the property 470 00:17:50,380 --> 00:17:51,220 they give you an idea 471 00:17:51,220 --> 00:17:54,080 of the general shape of a property. 472 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:55,730 And there's a lot of great information. 473 00:17:55,730 --> 00:17:57,510 Seems like every year, there's more and more 474 00:17:57,510 --> 00:17:59,980 free mapping information out there, 475 00:17:59,980 --> 00:18:01,660 free GPS tools. 476 00:18:01,660 --> 00:18:03,720 Our phones are as powerful 477 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:06,960 as really any GPS you could really need 478 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:08,600 for this type of work. 479 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:11,180 So we can't go into all the detail 480 00:18:11,180 --> 00:18:12,300 about what's available, 481 00:18:12,300 --> 00:18:13,730 but just know that 482 00:18:13,730 --> 00:18:15,960 everything from Google maps to Avenza, 483 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:17,810 which is helpful because it's offline, 484 00:18:17,810 --> 00:18:19,020 you could download the maps 485 00:18:19,020 --> 00:18:20,793 and use your phone's GPS. 486 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:24,020 A lot of towns have 487 00:18:24,020 --> 00:18:26,270 this municipal parcel data available. 488 00:18:26,270 --> 00:18:28,240 And it can be helpful. 489 00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:29,223 You can zoom in, 490 00:18:30,590 --> 00:18:31,750 although I don't know if anyone 491 00:18:31,750 --> 00:18:32,940 would recognize the shape, 492 00:18:32,940 --> 00:18:34,690 but this is the Proctor Maple 493 00:18:34,690 --> 00:18:36,920 Research Center property 494 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:38,560 that I've zoomed into. 495 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:40,090 And you can zoom in even more. 496 00:18:40,090 --> 00:18:41,710 That's the lab on the right 497 00:18:41,710 --> 00:18:44,370 and the sugar house on the left, 498 00:18:44,370 --> 00:18:45,990 and this is all free. 499 00:18:45,990 --> 00:18:47,120 This is something, 500 00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:49,400 you can play around with at home, 501 00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:50,810 and get a sense of 502 00:18:50,810 --> 00:18:52,060 if it's not your property, 503 00:18:52,060 --> 00:18:55,230 if it's a property you're thinking about leasing, 504 00:18:55,230 --> 00:18:57,220 get a better sense of where the roads are, 505 00:18:57,220 --> 00:18:58,410 where things are at, 506 00:18:58,410 --> 00:19:01,570 is this really gonna be worth my time 507 00:19:01,570 --> 00:19:04,613 before you even invest in doing an inventory. 508 00:19:06,250 --> 00:19:09,820 So let's just assume that you have a property, 509 00:19:09,820 --> 00:19:11,477 a sugarbush, 510 00:19:11,477 --> 00:19:12,870 and you wanna do some inventory. 511 00:19:12,870 --> 00:19:15,240 So you have some choices to make. 512 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:16,150 First of all, 513 00:19:16,150 --> 00:19:18,440 the sugarbush is part of a forested property 514 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:20,720 so there are gonna be trees involved. 515 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:23,350 It's either gonna be owned by the operator, 516 00:19:23,350 --> 00:19:24,410 or you're gonna lease it 517 00:19:24,410 --> 00:19:27,023 and have an agreement with the landowner. 518 00:19:27,930 --> 00:19:29,090 I will put a plugin 519 00:19:29,090 --> 00:19:33,470 for our sugarbush lease guide and a checklist 520 00:19:33,470 --> 00:19:37,020 that can work through the process of developing, 521 00:19:37,020 --> 00:19:38,840 a sugarbush lease, 522 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:40,510 negotiating a price. 523 00:19:40,510 --> 00:19:42,050 All that information 524 00:19:42,050 --> 00:19:45,480 is available on maplemanager.org. 525 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:46,710 We've worked with attorneys 526 00:19:46,710 --> 00:19:49,970 so it's a good solid document to use 527 00:19:49,970 --> 00:19:52,870 when you're negotiating with a landowner, 528 00:19:52,870 --> 00:19:54,480 if you're gonna be leasing. 529 00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:55,710 A lot of sugarbushes 530 00:19:55,710 --> 00:19:57,130 are leased on a handshake 531 00:19:58,005 --> 00:19:59,130 and that's great. 532 00:19:59,130 --> 00:20:01,730 There's a tremendous tradition of that. 533 00:20:01,730 --> 00:20:03,980 Unfortunately, they don't always work out 534 00:20:03,980 --> 00:20:06,510 and for the protection of the land owner 535 00:20:06,510 --> 00:20:07,640 and the operator 536 00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:09,700 and all the investments there, 537 00:20:09,700 --> 00:20:11,830 it's a good idea to have something in writing. 538 00:20:11,830 --> 00:20:15,480 So consider looking at those resources 539 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:18,170 on maplemanager.org. 540 00:20:18,170 --> 00:20:21,160 Larger properties will often be enrolled 541 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,210 in some sort of tax abatement program. 542 00:20:23,210 --> 00:20:25,590 In Vermont it's the Use Value Appraisal 543 00:20:25,590 --> 00:20:27,330 or Current Use program. 544 00:20:27,330 --> 00:20:29,670 Other states have similar programs. 545 00:20:29,670 --> 00:20:30,870 A lot of times, 546 00:20:30,870 --> 00:20:32,430 part of the requirement 547 00:20:32,430 --> 00:20:34,270 is that there's active management 548 00:20:34,270 --> 00:20:38,210 that's based on a forest management plan 549 00:20:38,210 --> 00:20:40,410 that a professional forester has written, 550 00:20:40,410 --> 00:20:42,210 or at least signed off on. 551 00:20:42,210 --> 00:20:45,070 So if that property is yours, 552 00:20:45,070 --> 00:20:46,840 you already have a forest management plan. 553 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:48,270 You often will probably already 554 00:20:48,270 --> 00:20:50,410 have this information about the property 555 00:20:50,410 --> 00:20:51,810 and the stands. 556 00:20:51,810 --> 00:20:53,430 And in case you don't, 557 00:20:53,430 --> 00:20:54,263 you wanna make sure you know, 558 00:20:54,263 --> 00:20:55,883 what the property boundary is. 559 00:20:57,601 --> 00:20:58,710 If there's some evidence, 560 00:20:58,710 --> 00:21:01,320 but it hasn't been painted recently 561 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:03,340 in the property boundary, 562 00:21:03,340 --> 00:21:05,240 make sure you know the rules in your state 563 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:07,020 about who can and who cannot 564 00:21:07,020 --> 00:21:09,680 refresh paint blazes. 565 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:12,010 In some states, foresters can do it 566 00:21:12,010 --> 00:21:13,930 and other states, they can't, 567 00:21:13,930 --> 00:21:17,460 it has to be done by a professional surveyor. 568 00:21:17,460 --> 00:21:20,240 So you really wanna make sure you know, 569 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:21,880 what the property extent is 570 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:24,640 before you start measuring trees 571 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:26,533 for potentially tapping. 572 00:21:27,450 --> 00:21:28,880 The other important thing to do 573 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:31,320 is to break the property up into stands. 574 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:33,280 And stands are really just areas 575 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:35,870 of similar distribution of trees. 576 00:21:35,870 --> 00:21:37,610 So you might have a stand, 577 00:21:37,610 --> 00:21:40,350 like say that has mostly small trees. 578 00:21:40,350 --> 00:21:43,180 Maybe it was most recently a farm field 579 00:21:43,180 --> 00:21:47,010 and has been abandoned some time ago, 580 00:21:47,010 --> 00:21:48,890 trees stopped being mowed, 581 00:21:48,890 --> 00:21:50,360 trees grew in, 582 00:21:50,360 --> 00:21:52,080 and it's progressing towards 583 00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:54,120 a later successional 584 00:21:54,120 --> 00:21:57,730 or shade tolerant type species. 585 00:21:57,730 --> 00:21:59,250 You might have another stand 586 00:21:59,250 --> 00:22:01,920 that has been in forestry for a long time. 587 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:03,130 It's really, well-managed, 588 00:22:03,130 --> 00:22:05,860 it's really been maximizing the growth. 589 00:22:05,860 --> 00:22:07,930 Those two stands are gonna look quite different, 590 00:22:07,930 --> 00:22:11,790 and it's often a good strategy 591 00:22:11,790 --> 00:22:14,600 to divide those into different parcels 592 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,290 so you can understand what's there 593 00:22:17,290 --> 00:22:19,833 and manage them accordingly. 594 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:22,170 There's no set rule 595 00:22:22,170 --> 00:22:24,010 for how many acres you would have 596 00:22:24,010 --> 00:22:25,690 to make a stand. 597 00:22:25,690 --> 00:22:29,260 It's probably on the order of several acres 598 00:22:29,260 --> 00:22:31,570 there'll be a minimum for a stand. 599 00:22:31,570 --> 00:22:33,960 You wouldn't wanna have a stand that's one acre. 600 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:36,470 Maybe 10 acres, maybe 20. 601 00:22:36,470 --> 00:22:38,950 It really depends on the larger size of the property. 602 00:22:38,950 --> 00:22:42,000 And then how much variability there is, 603 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:46,190 how many different types of features are there 604 00:22:46,190 --> 00:22:49,050 and what the characteristics 605 00:22:49,050 --> 00:22:50,540 of the trees are in the stand. 606 00:22:50,540 --> 00:22:54,320 So that 2300 acre property 607 00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:55,700 I showed you earlier, 608 00:22:55,700 --> 00:22:57,600 I think that had four stands. 609 00:22:57,600 --> 00:22:59,600 So that gives you a sense of, 610 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,490 you don't have to have a million stands 611 00:23:01,490 --> 00:23:03,990 just because it's a really large property. 612 00:23:03,990 --> 00:23:07,010 They can be fairly large. 613 00:23:07,010 --> 00:23:10,480 And they're generally based on site quality, 614 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,300 hydrology in some ways, 615 00:23:13,300 --> 00:23:14,610 and structure, 616 00:23:14,610 --> 00:23:17,303 it can be done on structure of the trees. 617 00:23:19,610 --> 00:23:20,650 So let's talk a little bit about 618 00:23:20,650 --> 00:23:22,720 what types of inventories you might do. 619 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:26,490 The first off is the a hundred percent inventory. 620 00:23:26,490 --> 00:23:28,970 That's measuring every single tree. 621 00:23:28,970 --> 00:23:30,240 And you might imagine 622 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:31,640 this would take the longest. 623 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:33,810 It's not the most practical. 624 00:23:33,810 --> 00:23:34,960 And definitely not practical 625 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:36,540 when you get above a couple of acres, 626 00:23:36,540 --> 00:23:38,100 it's just gonna take too long. 627 00:23:38,100 --> 00:23:42,030 So if you're on the hobby side of things, 628 00:23:42,030 --> 00:23:44,770 I think that's certainly a possibility, 629 00:23:44,770 --> 00:23:46,450 but once you get to be 630 00:23:46,450 --> 00:23:48,720 even just a little bit larger 631 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:50,120 it's gonna be impractical 632 00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:52,113 to measure all those trees. 633 00:23:53,830 --> 00:23:55,080 The next type of sampling 634 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:56,510 is called plot sampling, 635 00:23:56,510 --> 00:23:58,220 and that's essentially 636 00:23:58,220 --> 00:24:01,620 envisioning a circle of a known size 637 00:24:01,620 --> 00:24:04,230 and distributing those circles 638 00:24:04,230 --> 00:24:07,640 across the stand and across the property 639 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:11,010 and taking a measurement 640 00:24:11,010 --> 00:24:12,220 within that plot. 641 00:24:12,220 --> 00:24:14,380 And then multiplying by whatever 642 00:24:14,380 --> 00:24:16,030 size plot you used. 643 00:24:16,030 --> 00:24:18,250 So here I gave you three examples 644 00:24:18,250 --> 00:24:20,030 of different plot sizes. 645 00:24:20,030 --> 00:24:24,490 A fifth acre would have a radius of 52.6 feet, 646 00:24:24,490 --> 00:24:27,717 a 10th of an acre would be 37.2 feet, 647 00:24:27,717 --> 00:24:31,660 and a 20th of an acre would be 26.4 feet. 648 00:24:31,660 --> 00:24:33,230 So you can imagine 649 00:24:33,230 --> 00:24:34,450 putting a stick in the ground, 650 00:24:34,450 --> 00:24:37,000 maybe hanging a piece of flag in there 651 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,020 that would be the center of the circle. 652 00:24:39,020 --> 00:24:40,510 And then you would use a measuring tape 653 00:24:40,510 --> 00:24:41,590 or some other way 654 00:24:41,590 --> 00:24:43,660 of accurately measuring the distance 655 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:46,970 to the 10th of a foot out 656 00:24:46,970 --> 00:24:48,150 and swinging that tape 657 00:24:48,150 --> 00:24:50,690 all the way around in a circle. 658 00:24:50,690 --> 00:24:53,050 The extent of that circle would represent 659 00:24:53,050 --> 00:24:54,653 everything you wanted to count. 660 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:58,360 So in that case of purely a tap count, 661 00:24:58,360 --> 00:25:00,070 you would measure every tappable tree 662 00:25:00,070 --> 00:25:01,680 within that plot. 663 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,210 And you would repeat that multiple times 664 00:25:04,210 --> 00:25:05,150 throughout the stand 665 00:25:05,150 --> 00:25:06,810 and throughout the property. 666 00:25:06,810 --> 00:25:09,380 And you would multiply that by whatever factor. 667 00:25:09,380 --> 00:25:11,440 So if you took fifth acre plots, 668 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,050 you'd measure every tree in that plot, 669 00:25:14,050 --> 00:25:16,340 multiply that answer by five, 670 00:25:16,340 --> 00:25:18,230 and then you would divide 671 00:25:18,230 --> 00:25:21,060 by the number of plots that you did. 672 00:25:21,060 --> 00:25:22,410 Same thing for a 10th of an acre. 673 00:25:22,410 --> 00:25:23,910 If we measured every single tree 674 00:25:23,910 --> 00:25:25,323 in that 10th acre plot, 675 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:28,500 then we would multiply that by 10. 676 00:25:28,500 --> 00:25:32,240 And we would get an estimate of how many trees 677 00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:33,863 or taps per acre there were. 678 00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:36,270 Plot sampling is also called 679 00:25:36,270 --> 00:25:37,830 the fixed radius plot. 680 00:25:37,830 --> 00:25:38,663 Typically, 681 00:25:38,663 --> 00:25:40,040 we'd be looking at somewhere between 682 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:42,820 one plot for every four or five acres. 683 00:25:42,820 --> 00:25:46,030 If you sample more intensively, 684 00:25:46,030 --> 00:25:49,020 you might do three to four acres. 685 00:25:49,020 --> 00:25:50,660 It just means you're gonna be 686 00:25:50,660 --> 00:25:52,710 getting more detailed data. 687 00:25:52,710 --> 00:25:54,090 It'll take more time 688 00:25:54,090 --> 00:25:55,350 if you're paying a forester 689 00:25:55,350 --> 00:25:57,170 or someone trained to do this, 690 00:25:57,170 --> 00:25:58,940 it'll just cost more. 691 00:25:58,940 --> 00:26:02,230 But the idea being that 692 00:26:02,230 --> 00:26:05,750 the larger number of acres for each plot, 693 00:26:05,750 --> 00:26:07,500 you're gonna lose some detail, 694 00:26:07,500 --> 00:26:09,330 but you'll still have a good sense, 695 00:26:09,330 --> 00:26:12,080 of what's happening and how many taps you have. 696 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:13,430 It's kind of all over the place, 697 00:26:13,430 --> 00:26:15,000 as far as how much 698 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:16,720 a forester might charge you. 699 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:17,880 I would think, 700 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:19,280 again, it depends on the property, 701 00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:20,780 access, all those things, 702 00:26:20,780 --> 00:26:23,200 but it might be 703 00:26:24,213 --> 00:26:27,220 $3 an acre to do plots. 704 00:26:27,220 --> 00:26:28,990 You really would have to talk 705 00:26:28,990 --> 00:26:31,010 to the individual consulting forester 706 00:26:31,010 --> 00:26:34,160 and see what they would estimate. 707 00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:35,370 And going back to the idea 708 00:26:35,370 --> 00:26:37,820 of establishment of permanent plots. 709 00:26:37,820 --> 00:26:39,340 This is another way where 710 00:26:39,340 --> 00:26:41,240 you could put these plots in. 711 00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:43,500 You could actually number those trees 712 00:26:43,500 --> 00:26:45,430 and over time you could keep going back 713 00:26:45,430 --> 00:26:46,500 to those trees 714 00:26:46,500 --> 00:26:48,810 and remeasuring their diameters, 715 00:26:48,810 --> 00:26:49,920 and you would get a sense 716 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,800 of how growth rates are. 717 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:53,760 And if you combine that 718 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:56,410 with some of the information 719 00:26:56,410 --> 00:26:57,490 out of the Proctor Center, 720 00:26:57,490 --> 00:27:01,270 in terms of growth rates and sustainability, 721 00:27:01,270 --> 00:27:03,160 you could get a really good sense of 722 00:27:04,810 --> 00:27:07,650 is the tapping intensity that you're practicing 723 00:27:07,650 --> 00:27:09,550 sustainable over the longterm? 724 00:27:09,550 --> 00:27:11,550 Or are you gonna start running 725 00:27:11,550 --> 00:27:14,590 into an issue of hitting non-conductive wood 726 00:27:14,590 --> 00:27:16,893 and losing sap production? 727 00:27:18,140 --> 00:27:20,560 Another, the third type of sampling 728 00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:22,280 would be what's called point sampling 729 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,990 or variable radius sampling. 730 00:27:24,990 --> 00:27:28,550 And this is when you establish points 731 00:27:28,550 --> 00:27:31,370 similar to a plot sample, 732 00:27:31,370 --> 00:27:33,350 but instead of measuring a diameter, 733 00:27:33,350 --> 00:27:36,160 you use a tool to sample 734 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:39,820 and trees are counted based on their diameter 735 00:27:39,820 --> 00:27:41,270 and the distance from the point 736 00:27:41,270 --> 00:27:42,453 that you established. 737 00:27:43,660 --> 00:27:45,500 So we'll talk about the tools needed 738 00:27:45,500 --> 00:27:47,150 to do that sampling, 739 00:27:47,150 --> 00:27:48,060 but just understand that 740 00:27:48,060 --> 00:27:50,990 you're not measuring a diameter of a circle 741 00:27:50,990 --> 00:27:52,530 in this scenario, 742 00:27:52,530 --> 00:27:54,370 you're just navigating to the points 743 00:27:54,370 --> 00:27:56,610 that you've decided to have 744 00:27:56,610 --> 00:27:58,200 for your sample points. 745 00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:00,620 You're using your tool to measure the trees, 746 00:28:00,620 --> 00:28:02,610 to see whether or not they are 747 00:28:02,610 --> 00:28:04,340 to be counted or not. 748 00:28:04,340 --> 00:28:06,630 And you're moving on. 749 00:28:06,630 --> 00:28:09,510 It's fast, much faster than plot sampling, 750 00:28:09,510 --> 00:28:10,870 and they can be accurate 751 00:28:10,870 --> 00:28:13,470 assuming that people use the correct tools, 752 00:28:13,470 --> 00:28:16,250 and know how to do it. 753 00:28:16,250 --> 00:28:20,650 There is some helpful information available. 754 00:28:20,650 --> 00:28:21,840 If you want more, 755 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:23,290 I can help you with it. 756 00:28:23,290 --> 00:28:25,440 We'll talk a little bit about how you use the tools, 757 00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:26,910 but it is a little bit more, 758 00:28:26,910 --> 00:28:30,250 than the time allows tonight to train you, 759 00:28:30,250 --> 00:28:32,343 on how to do this type of sampling. 760 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:34,840 What's really important 761 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:36,500 and this is true of point sampling 762 00:28:36,500 --> 00:28:38,250 or plot sampling 763 00:28:38,250 --> 00:28:40,710 is that these places, these points 764 00:28:40,710 --> 00:28:44,630 need to be located without bias or randomly. 765 00:28:44,630 --> 00:28:46,440 And by that, I mean, 766 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:48,920 if you always put your points 767 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:50,290 on that nice woods road 768 00:28:50,290 --> 00:28:51,980 that you always like to walk down, 769 00:28:51,980 --> 00:28:53,880 you're gonna get a good sample 770 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:55,070 of what the trees are 771 00:28:55,070 --> 00:28:56,610 around that nice wood road 772 00:28:56,610 --> 00:28:57,940 that you like to walk down, 773 00:28:57,940 --> 00:29:00,730 but it may not be the most representative sample 774 00:29:00,730 --> 00:29:03,020 of the trees you have in your woods. 775 00:29:03,020 --> 00:29:06,870 And as much as we think we can control our bias, 776 00:29:06,870 --> 00:29:07,930 it's difficult. 777 00:29:07,930 --> 00:29:10,470 And so using, 778 00:29:10,470 --> 00:29:12,270 some of the free software that's available, 779 00:29:12,270 --> 00:29:15,180 to randomly put points down 780 00:29:15,180 --> 00:29:17,300 on your property map, 781 00:29:17,300 --> 00:29:20,460 that can help you eliminate some of those biases, 782 00:29:20,460 --> 00:29:23,370 even just walking uphill or downhill 783 00:29:23,370 --> 00:29:25,910 can influence where you put your point. 784 00:29:25,910 --> 00:29:28,220 So just one last thing to say is 785 00:29:29,260 --> 00:29:31,730 if the goal is to get a real accurate count 786 00:29:31,730 --> 00:29:34,740 of how many trees you have to tap, 787 00:29:34,740 --> 00:29:36,010 it's important to make sure 788 00:29:36,010 --> 00:29:38,270 that you're sampling the entire property, 789 00:29:38,270 --> 00:29:40,720 not just the areas that are easy to walk through 790 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:42,810 or are easy to get to. 791 00:29:42,810 --> 00:29:44,360 That's all I'll say about that. 792 00:29:45,370 --> 00:29:47,300 Like I said, you can put in more plots, 793 00:29:47,300 --> 00:29:50,590 but it will take more time or cost more 794 00:29:50,590 --> 00:29:52,883 if you're hiring someone to do that work. 795 00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:56,060 Here's another way of envisioning 796 00:29:56,060 --> 00:29:58,740 that variable radius plot concept. 797 00:29:58,740 --> 00:30:00,880 So let's say that red X 798 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:03,210 is the point center 799 00:30:03,210 --> 00:30:04,320 and you're standing there 800 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:06,090 and you're measuring the trees 801 00:30:06,090 --> 00:30:08,840 in that location. 802 00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:10,220 You're gonna use one of the tools 803 00:30:10,220 --> 00:30:13,520 that I'm gonna describe in a minute. 804 00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:16,890 And you will look around that whole, 805 00:30:16,890 --> 00:30:20,930 all the way in 360 degrees around that point. 806 00:30:20,930 --> 00:30:22,380 And you will measure to see 807 00:30:22,380 --> 00:30:24,790 if the trees are tallied or not, 808 00:30:24,790 --> 00:30:26,490 and they will become 809 00:30:26,490 --> 00:30:29,230 more likely to be tallied the larger they are. 810 00:30:29,230 --> 00:30:33,090 So larger trees are more likely to be counted, 811 00:30:33,090 --> 00:30:35,143 but that just means that, 812 00:30:36,660 --> 00:30:38,440 it's how the tools are designed. 813 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:40,190 I'll talk about that just a second. 814 00:30:41,210 --> 00:30:42,140 To be consistent 815 00:30:42,140 --> 00:30:45,010 it's really important to start at the same point. 816 00:30:45,010 --> 00:30:47,000 So you wanna start at due North 817 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:48,400 and work your way around 818 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:50,210 the convention is to work clockwise 819 00:30:50,210 --> 00:30:52,060 around in a circle. 820 00:30:52,060 --> 00:30:53,760 You don't have to measure out the plot 821 00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:55,720 in these point samples, 822 00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,900 but you do need to make sure you're not 823 00:30:58,900 --> 00:31:01,090 counting the same tree over and over again, 824 00:31:01,090 --> 00:31:02,110 or multiple times. 825 00:31:02,110 --> 00:31:04,640 So use some sort of landmark 826 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:07,990 or some sort of identifiers 827 00:31:07,990 --> 00:31:10,486 so that you know you've come back around, 828 00:31:10,486 --> 00:31:12,430 to the starting point 829 00:31:12,430 --> 00:31:15,150 when you're working your way around in a circle. 830 00:31:15,150 --> 00:31:16,950 The important thing is that you're standing 831 00:31:16,950 --> 00:31:18,360 right above that point center. 832 00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:21,020 You're not walking out to those trees. 833 00:31:21,020 --> 00:31:21,853 You wanna make sure 834 00:31:21,853 --> 00:31:23,300 all those trees you're measuring 835 00:31:23,300 --> 00:31:25,743 are happening right from that plot center. 836 00:31:27,750 --> 00:31:30,450 I will say the last type of inventory 837 00:31:30,450 --> 00:31:31,690 is sort of a quick and dirty, 838 00:31:31,690 --> 00:31:34,750 and that is just to visualize a football field. 839 00:31:34,750 --> 00:31:35,730 So a football field 840 00:31:35,730 --> 00:31:38,630 is just about an acre in size. 841 00:31:38,630 --> 00:31:40,520 Most woods you can't see 842 00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:42,150 the equivalent of a football field, 843 00:31:42,150 --> 00:31:45,520 but you can probably estimate how close. 844 00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:47,500 And that would be another way to do it 845 00:31:47,500 --> 00:31:49,793 real quick and dirty, jump in there, 846 00:31:50,990 --> 00:31:52,890 decide whether or not you can see roughly 847 00:31:52,890 --> 00:31:54,150 half a football field, 848 00:31:54,150 --> 00:31:56,290 or maybe a little more, 849 00:31:56,290 --> 00:31:57,200 count the trees 850 00:31:58,179 --> 00:32:00,060 and that'll get you on your way. 851 00:32:00,060 --> 00:32:02,380 Like all quick and dirty things 852 00:32:02,380 --> 00:32:04,090 they'll get you a little bit of information, 853 00:32:04,090 --> 00:32:06,090 but it's not gonna be the most accurate 854 00:32:06,090 --> 00:32:07,020 by any means. 855 00:32:07,020 --> 00:32:11,000 And it could cause you to make some choices 856 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:12,810 in terms of buying materials 857 00:32:12,810 --> 00:32:14,630 or hiring installers 858 00:32:14,630 --> 00:32:16,200 or any number of things 859 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:18,073 that you may wish you had done 860 00:32:18,073 --> 00:32:21,473 a little bit more high quality inventory. 861 00:32:23,660 --> 00:32:25,440 So what tools are we gonna use? 862 00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:27,590 We have a couple of forestry tools, 863 00:32:27,590 --> 00:32:29,350 that are pretty common, 864 00:32:29,350 --> 00:32:30,300 a diameter tape, 865 00:32:30,300 --> 00:32:32,190 or a Biltmore stick. 866 00:32:32,190 --> 00:32:34,950 These are ways of measuring diameter. 867 00:32:34,950 --> 00:32:36,730 You have an angle gauge or a prism. 868 00:32:36,730 --> 00:32:38,500 These are ways of determining 869 00:32:38,500 --> 00:32:41,460 whether or not tree is to be tallied or not. 870 00:32:41,460 --> 00:32:42,520 A measuring tape. 871 00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:43,840 This would be like a a hundred foot 872 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:45,280 or a hundred meter tape. 873 00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:47,070 That's what you would use to determine, 874 00:32:47,070 --> 00:32:49,040 if you're doing plot sampling, 875 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:50,920 how far is that radius? 876 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:52,170 How big is the plot? 877 00:32:52,170 --> 00:32:53,740 Am I gonna do a fifth of an acre? 878 00:32:53,740 --> 00:32:56,120 Am I gonna do a 20th of an acre, 879 00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:57,640 whatever that is. 880 00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:59,180 Map and compass. 881 00:32:59,180 --> 00:33:01,290 Still important even the digital age, 882 00:33:01,290 --> 00:33:02,680 it's really important to have 883 00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:03,950 a sense of where you're at, 884 00:33:03,950 --> 00:33:06,650 how to navigate to these data points 885 00:33:06,650 --> 00:33:10,340 if your phone isn't available or not working. 886 00:33:10,340 --> 00:33:11,750 And then a data sheet. 887 00:33:11,750 --> 00:33:14,363 Got to have a way of inventorying that data. 888 00:33:16,820 --> 00:33:19,290 A Biltmore stick is very simple. 889 00:33:19,290 --> 00:33:20,980 It's a wooden stick 890 00:33:20,980 --> 00:33:22,230 that looks kinda like a yard stick. 891 00:33:22,230 --> 00:33:24,490 It's designed with graduations 892 00:33:24,490 --> 00:33:26,960 along one side to measure diameter. 893 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:29,380 You line up one edge of the Biltmore stick 894 00:33:29,380 --> 00:33:30,910 on one edge of the tree. 895 00:33:30,910 --> 00:33:33,240 You hold it a set distance away from your eye, 896 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:35,870 and you look along the other edge 897 00:33:35,870 --> 00:33:37,330 of the diameter of the tree. 898 00:33:37,330 --> 00:33:39,250 And you see where that tree 899 00:33:40,510 --> 00:33:42,500 edge of the stem intersects with 900 00:33:42,500 --> 00:33:45,380 the diameter markings on the tree. 901 00:33:45,380 --> 00:33:48,040 They're in graduations of 902 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:49,610 one foot or two foot, 903 00:33:49,610 --> 00:33:51,240 sorry, one inch or two inch, 904 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,670 and they're not especially precise, 905 00:33:54,670 --> 00:33:56,450 but it does give you a ballpark 906 00:33:56,450 --> 00:33:57,940 number for diameter 907 00:33:57,940 --> 00:33:59,960 and probably precise enough, 908 00:33:59,960 --> 00:34:02,240 for the purposes of measuring 909 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:04,300 number of taps per tree. 910 00:34:04,300 --> 00:34:05,560 A couple of things to keep in mind. 911 00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:06,410 You always wanna measure 912 00:34:06,410 --> 00:34:08,173 on the high side of the tree. 913 00:34:09,060 --> 00:34:10,480 High side of the base of the stumps. 914 00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:12,240 So if you're on sloped land, 915 00:34:12,240 --> 00:34:13,300 you're gonna wanna make sure 916 00:34:13,300 --> 00:34:15,340 that you're on that high side, 917 00:34:15,340 --> 00:34:18,090 not on the bottom or on the side. 918 00:34:18,090 --> 00:34:19,630 And you always wanna measure it 919 00:34:19,630 --> 00:34:21,100 four and a half feet above the ground. 920 00:34:21,100 --> 00:34:22,940 That's the forestry convention 921 00:34:22,940 --> 00:34:24,850 for diameter at breast height. 922 00:34:24,850 --> 00:34:27,090 And this just allows for 923 00:34:27,090 --> 00:34:30,470 removing mistakes from tree to tree. 924 00:34:30,470 --> 00:34:31,860 So a more precise measure 925 00:34:31,860 --> 00:34:33,173 would be a diameter tape. 926 00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:36,220 Here's one that's divided up. 927 00:34:36,220 --> 00:34:40,130 On one side it has regular length measurements 928 00:34:40,130 --> 00:34:42,247 and the other, it has diameter. 929 00:34:42,247 --> 00:34:44,830 And the way it works is it takes circumference 930 00:34:44,830 --> 00:34:47,042 and it does the math 931 00:34:47,042 --> 00:34:48,680 and converts it to diameter. 932 00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:52,110 So here's a diameter tape measuring, 933 00:34:52,110 --> 00:34:55,010 in this case a cookie of a sugar maple tree. 934 00:34:55,010 --> 00:34:57,650 And it's almost 11.9 inches, 935 00:34:57,650 --> 00:34:59,670 but it's just a little under 11.9 936 00:34:59,670 --> 00:35:02,700 between 11.8 and 11.9. 937 00:35:02,700 --> 00:35:04,810 If you can see the bottom part of the tape, 938 00:35:04,810 --> 00:35:07,670 there's a line and I'm lining up my eye 939 00:35:07,670 --> 00:35:10,700 with where that bottom line 940 00:35:10,700 --> 00:35:12,880 and the graduations above. 941 00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:14,960 And this is divided up into tenths. 942 00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:16,410 If you're using a D-tape, 943 00:35:16,410 --> 00:35:18,630 make sure the tape is level, 944 00:35:18,630 --> 00:35:20,520 parallel with the ground 945 00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:21,870 or perpendicular to the stem. 946 00:35:21,870 --> 00:35:25,810 It's not up or down in some way and not twisted 947 00:35:25,810 --> 00:35:30,030 because that would impact the measurements. 948 00:35:30,030 --> 00:35:32,250 So that's measuring diameter. 949 00:35:32,250 --> 00:35:34,370 You also have point sampling tools 950 00:35:34,370 --> 00:35:35,993 and plot sampling tools. 951 00:35:36,910 --> 00:35:39,900 So an angle gauge is an inexpensive way 952 00:35:39,900 --> 00:35:41,460 of point sampling. 953 00:35:41,460 --> 00:35:44,520 And you basically look through that 954 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:49,200 oddly shaped opening in the angle gauge, 955 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:51,563 and you look to see whether or not, 956 00:35:52,648 --> 00:35:56,250 the tree in question fills that space, 957 00:35:56,250 --> 00:35:57,950 that little void or not. 958 00:35:57,950 --> 00:35:59,340 And there's a couple of different, 959 00:35:59,340 --> 00:36:01,150 there's a five, a 10, a 20, 960 00:36:01,150 --> 00:36:04,493 and actually even a 40 factor. 961 00:36:06,230 --> 00:36:08,430 Let's go to the very top and that's the five. 962 00:36:08,430 --> 00:36:12,040 So if a tree totally fills that slot, 963 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,300 that's the width by the five 964 00:36:14,300 --> 00:36:16,070 then the tree would be counted. 965 00:36:16,070 --> 00:36:17,320 If it doesn't fill that, 966 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:18,320 if you can see daylight 967 00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:20,570 on either side of the tree within that slot, 968 00:36:20,570 --> 00:36:22,590 then it isn't counted 969 00:36:22,590 --> 00:36:25,010 and you rotate this around plot center 970 00:36:25,010 --> 00:36:26,610 or point center, 971 00:36:26,610 --> 00:36:28,070 and that chain is meant 972 00:36:28,070 --> 00:36:31,260 to set the distance away from your eye. 973 00:36:31,260 --> 00:36:33,360 So you would hold that either up to your mouth 974 00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:35,130 or some people would actually put it in their mouth, 975 00:36:35,130 --> 00:36:36,980 but it's probably not tasty 976 00:36:36,980 --> 00:36:38,750 to chomp on that. 977 00:36:38,750 --> 00:36:40,440 But you wanna make sure 978 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:42,480 that distance is kept constant 979 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:45,653 as you're rotating around the plot. 980 00:36:46,850 --> 00:36:48,010 And you're counting 981 00:36:48,010 --> 00:36:52,840 all the trees that are filling that void. 982 00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:54,950 A cheap and easy way 983 00:36:54,950 --> 00:36:56,640 instead of using the angle gauge 984 00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:58,270 is using a penny. 985 00:36:58,270 --> 00:37:00,370 That's similar to the 10 factor 986 00:37:00,370 --> 00:37:02,890 that was on that angle gauge. 987 00:37:02,890 --> 00:37:05,080 It's not exactly the same. 988 00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:08,820 So it would actually tell you 989 00:37:08,820 --> 00:37:10,150 slightly fewer trees. 990 00:37:10,150 --> 00:37:12,110 So you might do an under count. 991 00:37:12,110 --> 00:37:14,050 And that illustration below 992 00:37:14,050 --> 00:37:16,400 you can see that kind of penny, 993 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:17,710 the view from your eye 994 00:37:17,710 --> 00:37:19,340 of whether or not that penny 995 00:37:19,340 --> 00:37:23,450 totally covers the tree diameter or not. 996 00:37:23,450 --> 00:37:27,850 And if it is equal to that diameter or greater 997 00:37:27,850 --> 00:37:29,050 then you would count it. 998 00:37:29,050 --> 00:37:32,570 And if the penny is larger than the stem, 999 00:37:32,570 --> 00:37:33,720 you would not count it. 1000 00:37:34,590 --> 00:37:35,520 And you would repeat this 1001 00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:37,000 for all the number of points 1002 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:38,810 that you had decided 1003 00:37:38,810 --> 00:37:41,163 was appropriate for your stand. 1004 00:37:42,230 --> 00:37:43,590 A more expensive, 1005 00:37:43,590 --> 00:37:44,770 but more precise 1006 00:37:44,770 --> 00:37:46,810 way of doing point sampling 1007 00:37:46,810 --> 00:37:49,500 is using a wedge prism. 1008 00:37:49,500 --> 00:37:52,350 And this is a well engineered, 1009 00:37:52,350 --> 00:37:55,290 carefully engineered wedge of glass 1010 00:37:55,290 --> 00:37:57,167 that you look through 1011 00:37:57,167 --> 00:37:58,880 and the angle of that glass, 1012 00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:00,690 it has a set angle, 1013 00:38:00,690 --> 00:38:04,550 and that does a certain amount of offset. 1014 00:38:04,550 --> 00:38:06,770 It makes the view through that prism, 1015 00:38:06,770 --> 00:38:08,680 slightly offset from what you see 1016 00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:10,810 above and below the prism. 1017 00:38:10,810 --> 00:38:15,280 And depending on if the offset overlaps 1018 00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:18,980 or is completely exposed 1019 00:38:18,980 --> 00:38:19,950 would be whether or not 1020 00:38:19,950 --> 00:38:22,060 you tally the tree or not. 1021 00:38:22,060 --> 00:38:24,330 That's a little abstract to say in words, 1022 00:38:24,330 --> 00:38:25,163 this is an illustration 1023 00:38:25,163 --> 00:38:27,540 of what it would look like. 1024 00:38:27,540 --> 00:38:31,060 The tree on the left in this illustration 1025 00:38:31,060 --> 00:38:34,160 would be out because it doesn't overlap 1026 00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,650 the tree in the middle clearly overlaps 1027 00:38:36,650 --> 00:38:39,530 and would be counted as a tree. 1028 00:38:39,530 --> 00:38:42,200 And the tree on the right 1029 00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:43,470 is right on the borderline. 1030 00:38:43,470 --> 00:38:45,023 It's really hard to tell. 1031 00:38:46,070 --> 00:38:47,800 There's different conventions 1032 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:49,980 about what to do in this case. 1033 00:38:49,980 --> 00:38:51,620 Some conventions would say 1034 00:38:52,950 --> 00:38:54,350 treat every other one, 1035 00:38:54,350 --> 00:38:55,490 count every other one. 1036 00:38:55,490 --> 00:38:56,680 So you just have to keep track 1037 00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:57,840 of whether or not 1038 00:38:57,840 --> 00:38:59,610 the last one you counted in. 1039 00:38:59,610 --> 00:39:00,620 And then the next time you have 1040 00:39:00,620 --> 00:39:02,154 a borderline tree, 1041 00:39:02,154 --> 00:39:04,240 you would not count it. 1042 00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:06,320 So if you're taking that extra step 1043 00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:07,490 of understanding, 1044 00:39:07,490 --> 00:39:11,100 the diameter distribution of trees, 1045 00:39:11,100 --> 00:39:13,270 you would go out to all the counted trees, 1046 00:39:13,270 --> 00:39:14,360 the trees like in the middle 1047 00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:16,000 that are clearly overlapping, 1048 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:17,767 and you would measure the diameter 1049 00:39:17,767 --> 00:39:19,283 and you would record that. 1050 00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:23,170 One other thing, actually, we can go to this. 1051 00:39:23,170 --> 00:39:25,150 In reality, this is what it looks like 1052 00:39:25,150 --> 00:39:27,193 when you're looking through a prism, 1053 00:39:28,130 --> 00:39:31,970 you can see the center of the stem is offset, 1054 00:39:31,970 --> 00:39:35,070 but it is clearly overlapping above and below. 1055 00:39:35,070 --> 00:39:38,070 So this would be a tree I would count. 1056 00:39:38,070 --> 00:39:40,810 Remember when you're doing point sampling, 1057 00:39:40,810 --> 00:39:43,360 it's really important that you establish 1058 00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:45,730 that point center right away. 1059 00:39:45,730 --> 00:39:46,750 Put a stick in the ground, 1060 00:39:46,750 --> 00:39:47,730 put some flagging there, 1061 00:39:47,730 --> 00:39:50,120 something that's not gonna move 1062 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,910 because even just a little bit of movement, 1063 00:39:52,910 --> 00:39:54,820 side to side or front and back 1064 00:39:54,820 --> 00:39:56,840 can make the difference of whether or not 1065 00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:58,430 a tree is counted or not. 1066 00:39:58,430 --> 00:40:00,040 And that the same is true for a plot. 1067 00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:03,200 You don't wanna be moving plot center around 1068 00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:05,600 because just a little bit of difference 1069 00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:07,103 can impact whether or not 1070 00:40:07,103 --> 00:40:08,500 a tree is counted. 1071 00:40:08,500 --> 00:40:12,513 And it'll just make your data inaccurate. 1072 00:40:14,220 --> 00:40:15,100 Data sheet. 1073 00:40:15,100 --> 00:40:16,040 Very important. 1074 00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,030 You wanna record that data. 1075 00:40:18,030 --> 00:40:19,410 You can make your own data sheet. 1076 00:40:19,410 --> 00:40:20,900 It doesn't have to be complicated. 1077 00:40:20,900 --> 00:40:22,060 You do wanna make sure, 1078 00:40:22,060 --> 00:40:24,030 you're keeping a tally 1079 00:40:24,030 --> 00:40:25,763 of how many tappable trees. 1080 00:40:26,610 --> 00:40:30,470 If you are looking for 1081 00:40:30,470 --> 00:40:31,960 potentially getting a loan, 1082 00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:33,070 they're gonna wanna know 1083 00:40:33,070 --> 00:40:35,020 how many taps per acre there are 1084 00:40:35,020 --> 00:40:36,160 on this property, 1085 00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:37,320 because that's gonna impact 1086 00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:40,780 your ability to produce sap, syrup 1087 00:40:40,780 --> 00:40:43,360 and in their mind pay back the loan. 1088 00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:47,500 So really important to have good numbers on this. 1089 00:40:47,500 --> 00:40:48,830 The stands are important 1090 00:40:48,830 --> 00:40:51,020 because you wanna be able to compare, 1091 00:40:51,020 --> 00:40:52,680 what stands have the most, 1092 00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:54,177 the good density of trees 1093 00:40:54,177 --> 00:40:56,273 and which ones are maybe a little thin. 1094 00:40:57,970 --> 00:40:59,650 And you also wanna make sure 1095 00:40:59,650 --> 00:41:01,160 you write down what the plot size. 1096 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:02,820 If you're doing fixed radius plots, 1097 00:41:02,820 --> 00:41:04,590 you wanna make sure you know, 1098 00:41:04,590 --> 00:41:05,950 what size plot you are doing 1099 00:41:05,950 --> 00:41:07,300 so you can do the math 1100 00:41:07,300 --> 00:41:11,490 on estimation of trees or taps per acre. 1101 00:41:11,490 --> 00:41:13,200 So here's an example. 1102 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,820 You can break it up by diameter class. 1103 00:41:15,820 --> 00:41:17,710 In forestry it's a little odd 1104 00:41:17,710 --> 00:41:20,710 there would be a range in diameters. 1105 00:41:20,710 --> 00:41:21,690 Generally speaking 1106 00:41:21,690 --> 00:41:24,290 it's a two inch diameter class. 1107 00:41:24,290 --> 00:41:26,410 So if you say a 10 inch tree, 1108 00:41:26,410 --> 00:41:29,720 that is 10 inches as the center point 1109 00:41:29,720 --> 00:41:32,290 of a two inch diameter class. 1110 00:41:32,290 --> 00:41:33,440 And so it could go everywhere 1111 00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:35,850 from a nine inch tree to an 11 inch tree 1112 00:41:35,850 --> 00:41:36,993 and so on. 1113 00:41:39,050 --> 00:41:42,450 Embracing the forestry methods 1114 00:41:42,450 --> 00:41:43,900 might be a little confusing. 1115 00:41:43,900 --> 00:41:45,070 You could do your own data sheet, 1116 00:41:45,070 --> 00:41:47,130 make up your own diameter classes, 1117 00:41:47,130 --> 00:41:48,640 however you wanna do it, 1118 00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:50,350 but make sure you're having a space 1119 00:41:50,350 --> 00:41:53,040 to tally the trees that are in 1120 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:56,903 and knowing what size plot you're using. 1121 00:41:57,970 --> 00:42:00,383 If you're using a point sampling 1122 00:42:00,383 --> 00:42:02,010 then you can find this information 1123 00:42:02,010 --> 00:42:03,100 online as well, 1124 00:42:03,100 --> 00:42:06,430 there is a multiplier of some sort of a factor 1125 00:42:06,430 --> 00:42:08,880 to estimate how many 1126 00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:12,730 based on whatever factor prism you're using. 1127 00:42:12,730 --> 00:42:15,390 The prism that are most common 1128 00:42:15,390 --> 00:42:17,810 would be a 10 factor prism, 1129 00:42:17,810 --> 00:42:19,760 but you would have a multiplier. 1130 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:22,130 So multiplying whatever number of trees 1131 00:42:22,130 --> 00:42:25,230 you tallied in that various diameter class, 1132 00:42:25,230 --> 00:42:27,060 you would multiply by that factor 1133 00:42:27,060 --> 00:42:28,490 and then you would total up 1134 00:42:28,490 --> 00:42:30,153 for number of taps per acre. 1135 00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:32,710 Developing something consistent, 1136 00:42:32,710 --> 00:42:34,240 a data sheet that will work for you 1137 00:42:34,240 --> 00:42:35,460 is important. 1138 00:42:35,460 --> 00:42:38,360 Make sure that whoever is doing this work, 1139 00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:40,810 has thought through, 1140 00:42:40,810 --> 00:42:42,090 what stands they're gonna do, 1141 00:42:42,090 --> 00:42:43,610 how many points they're gonna do, 1142 00:42:43,610 --> 00:42:45,763 how they're gonna navigate to those points. 1143 00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:49,160 And that is what I got for you. 1144 00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:53,050 So there's a fair amount to cover there, 1145 00:42:53,050 --> 00:42:55,280 and hopefully you got something out of it 1146 00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:59,990 and I'd be happy to take some questions now. 1147 00:42:59,990 --> 00:43:03,070 I can stop sharing 1148 00:43:04,300 --> 00:43:08,230 and I will try to give everyone a chance to 1149 00:43:09,274 --> 00:43:11,740 - And Mark, this is the other Mark. 1150 00:43:11,740 --> 00:43:13,990 I'm just gonna chime in and read one question 1151 00:43:13,990 --> 00:43:15,450 off the chat box. 1152 00:43:15,450 --> 00:43:16,283 - Sure. 1153 00:43:16,283 --> 00:43:18,540 - And then I can start unmuting if you want. 1154 00:43:18,540 --> 00:43:19,373 - Okay. 1155 00:43:19,373 --> 00:43:21,160 - Question came in a few minutes ago 1156 00:43:22,370 --> 00:43:23,203 I think this was right before you went 1157 00:43:23,203 --> 00:43:25,293 to some of the point sampling techniques. 1158 00:43:26,210 --> 00:43:29,770 What about CIR, Color Infrared Imagery 1159 00:43:29,770 --> 00:43:32,660 to determine type and size 1160 00:43:32,660 --> 00:43:35,070 for a method of inventory? 1161 00:43:35,070 --> 00:43:36,680 - Yeah, that's a good, 1162 00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:39,200 that's pretty high-tech. 1163 00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:40,800 There is definitely some remote sensing 1164 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:42,820 that can be done to look at species, 1165 00:43:42,820 --> 00:43:43,670 obviously would have to be 1166 00:43:43,670 --> 00:43:45,653 when the leaves are on. 1167 00:43:46,700 --> 00:43:49,480 I am not that familiar with that technology 1168 00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:52,180 so I wouldn't be able to estimate. 1169 00:43:52,180 --> 00:43:54,890 I think it could probably give you 1170 00:43:54,890 --> 00:43:57,830 a good sense broadly of what percentage 1171 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:02,160 in your stand are maple versus not, 1172 00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:04,020 but without getting on the ground, 1173 00:44:04,020 --> 00:44:06,560 it's hard to do diameters. 1174 00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:07,970 And I know LIDAR, 1175 00:44:07,970 --> 00:44:12,000 which is also a modern remote sensing technique 1176 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:14,110 has come a long way. 1177 00:44:14,110 --> 00:44:15,150 They're not there yet 1178 00:44:15,150 --> 00:44:16,750 in terms of measuring diameter 1179 00:44:16,750 --> 00:44:18,460 from that far away. 1180 00:44:18,460 --> 00:44:20,330 So I would still say that 1181 00:44:20,330 --> 00:44:22,422 someone has to be on the ground 1182 00:44:22,422 --> 00:44:23,893 measuring those trees. 1183 00:44:26,170 --> 00:44:28,210 So I think everyone now, 1184 00:44:28,210 --> 00:44:31,210 I think I gave everyone permission to unmute. 1185 00:44:31,210 --> 00:44:33,630 So if anyone else has questions, 1186 00:44:33,630 --> 00:44:35,500 I'd be happy to happy to take them there. 1187 00:44:35,500 --> 00:44:37,310 Or if you wanna contribute, 1188 00:44:37,310 --> 00:44:38,910 how you're approaching 1189 00:44:38,910 --> 00:44:40,770 inventorying your own property 1190 00:44:40,770 --> 00:44:43,920 or issues that you've run into 1191 00:44:45,790 --> 00:44:48,270 in terms of measuring trees. 1192 00:44:48,270 --> 00:44:49,103 Love to hear it. 1193 00:44:51,450 --> 00:44:53,490 - Hi, Mark, it's Jenny from Ontario. 1194 00:44:53,490 --> 00:44:55,724 Thanks for the great presentation. 1195 00:44:55,724 --> 00:44:56,557 - Hi Jenny. 1196 00:44:56,557 --> 00:44:57,680 - Hi. 1197 00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:00,110 So I just had a quick question about, 1198 00:45:00,110 --> 00:45:02,367 you mentioned earlier that 1199 00:45:02,367 --> 00:45:06,339 some trees might not have fully functional DBH, 1200 00:45:06,339 --> 00:45:08,770 and that that could also be included 1201 00:45:08,770 --> 00:45:09,940 in the inventory. 1202 00:45:09,940 --> 00:45:12,470 Do you have any tools or tips 1203 00:45:12,470 --> 00:45:14,080 for how to do that? 1204 00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:14,913 - Yeah, I mean, 1205 00:45:15,850 --> 00:45:17,960 the easiest would be just to estimate. 1206 00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,100 You look at an individual tree 1207 00:45:20,100 --> 00:45:23,770 that has a big area of decay 1208 00:45:23,770 --> 00:45:26,420 that's visibly non-conductive, 1209 00:45:26,420 --> 00:45:28,150 you would have to make some sort of estimation. 1210 00:45:28,150 --> 00:45:32,250 Is it 20% of the tappable area 1211 00:45:32,250 --> 00:45:34,293 and just reduce it proportionally. 1212 00:45:35,730 --> 00:45:37,030 The individual tools, 1213 00:45:37,030 --> 00:45:38,680 we can't see inside the tree 1214 00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:41,770 so it would have to be a really visible defect 1215 00:45:41,770 --> 00:45:45,410 for you to make that sort of deduction 1216 00:45:45,410 --> 00:45:48,093 in terms of a functional diameter. 1217 00:45:49,240 --> 00:45:51,053 There's some question about, 1218 00:45:53,832 --> 00:45:56,390 what's the maximum capacity of sap flow 1219 00:45:56,390 --> 00:45:58,070 through a certain unit of wood. 1220 00:45:58,070 --> 00:45:59,530 So like that, for instance, 1221 00:45:59,530 --> 00:46:02,120 that sugar maple board that I showed you. 1222 00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:04,580 That's a big proportion of the tree circumference 1223 00:46:06,030 --> 00:46:07,590 under sort of gravity 1224 00:46:07,590 --> 00:46:10,080 sap collection techniques 1225 00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:10,920 you would expect 1226 00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:15,020 that the reduction would be significant. 1227 00:46:15,020 --> 00:46:16,950 But with high vacuum, 1228 00:46:16,950 --> 00:46:18,140 we don't really know enough 1229 00:46:18,140 --> 00:46:20,260 at this point to say, 1230 00:46:20,260 --> 00:46:23,763 would you see as a dramatic reduction? 1231 00:46:24,610 --> 00:46:26,000 I think it's safe to estimate 1232 00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:27,260 that yes, you would, 1233 00:46:27,260 --> 00:46:29,040 and make some sort of reduction. 1234 00:46:29,040 --> 00:46:30,580 And I don't want it to suggest 1235 00:46:30,580 --> 00:46:32,290 that you do this for every individual tree, 1236 00:46:32,290 --> 00:46:33,940 'cause it would take too long. 1237 00:46:33,940 --> 00:46:35,760 I guess I'm bringing it up because 1238 00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:37,070 if you have a stand 1239 00:46:37,070 --> 00:46:40,360 that has a lot of issues with decay 1240 00:46:41,260 --> 00:46:42,350 it's worth noting, 1241 00:46:42,350 --> 00:46:44,683 it's worth considering 1242 00:46:44,683 --> 00:46:46,860 and making some reductions, 1243 00:46:46,860 --> 00:46:50,410 but also those might be good candidates to remove 1244 00:46:50,410 --> 00:46:54,520 and maybe put the limited sunlight 1245 00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:55,690 that's out there, 1246 00:46:55,690 --> 00:46:57,490 onto trees that have a better chance 1247 00:46:57,490 --> 00:46:59,270 of living over the longterm 1248 00:46:59,270 --> 00:47:00,663 and putting on new growth. 1249 00:47:03,100 --> 00:47:04,730 - Thank you. 1250 00:47:04,730 --> 00:47:05,710 - This is Mark Cannelo. 1251 00:47:05,710 --> 00:47:07,400 I'll just remind folks feel free to, 1252 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:09,240 you should be able to unmute yourself 1253 00:47:09,240 --> 00:47:10,840 if you go to your permission, 1254 00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:12,170 look at the little microphone 1255 00:47:12,170 --> 00:47:13,310 and if you're more comfortable 1256 00:47:13,310 --> 00:47:15,420 typing into the chat box, 1257 00:47:15,420 --> 00:47:18,180 don't hesitate to type in a question there 1258 00:47:18,180 --> 00:47:20,300 and I'll be sure to read it 1259 00:47:20,300 --> 00:47:23,713 if the other Mark doesn't read it right away. 1260 00:47:25,100 --> 00:47:27,450 Mark, I'm just gonna ask one question if I can. 1261 00:47:28,330 --> 00:47:30,600 A lot of times coming back to yield, 1262 00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:33,690 to sap yield and overall sugar yield 1263 00:47:33,690 --> 00:47:35,570 I know we've got a great legacy 1264 00:47:35,570 --> 00:47:39,170 of talking about yield per tap. 1265 00:47:39,170 --> 00:47:41,480 And what I'm kind of understanding 1266 00:47:41,480 --> 00:47:43,260 from this presentation is that 1267 00:47:43,260 --> 00:47:45,000 really it's sort of changing the orientation 1268 00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:48,240 from a tree basis to an acre basis. 1269 00:47:48,240 --> 00:47:49,090 And I'm just curious 1270 00:47:49,090 --> 00:47:51,020 if you have any thoughts about when, 1271 00:47:51,020 --> 00:47:52,770 as a forester when you hear people 1272 00:47:52,770 --> 00:47:54,463 talking about yield per tap, 1273 00:47:55,980 --> 00:47:57,910 do you have any thoughts about 1274 00:47:57,910 --> 00:48:00,230 the potential or the merits 1275 00:48:00,230 --> 00:48:01,740 of people considering their yield 1276 00:48:01,740 --> 00:48:03,050 more on an acre basis 1277 00:48:03,050 --> 00:48:06,400 rather than on a estimated tap level? 1278 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:07,233 - Yeah, I mean, 1279 00:48:09,230 --> 00:48:11,150 it's dynamic because, 1280 00:48:11,150 --> 00:48:14,470 at any one given time you might have, 1281 00:48:14,470 --> 00:48:17,700 a really high yield per tap, 1282 00:48:17,700 --> 00:48:19,430 but over time, 1283 00:48:19,430 --> 00:48:20,870 if you're not maximizing 1284 00:48:20,870 --> 00:48:22,810 the growth of those trees, 1285 00:48:22,810 --> 00:48:26,570 you are probably gonna see that yield go down 1286 00:48:26,570 --> 00:48:27,403 because the trees 1287 00:48:27,403 --> 00:48:28,940 aren't putting on enough wood 1288 00:48:28,940 --> 00:48:31,030 to make up for what's being removed 1289 00:48:31,030 --> 00:48:32,690 from tapping. 1290 00:48:32,690 --> 00:48:35,290 Both, the wood that's removed 1291 00:48:35,290 --> 00:48:36,410 by the tapping process, 1292 00:48:36,410 --> 00:48:38,010 but also the non-functional wood 1293 00:48:39,530 --> 00:48:41,570 accumulate over time. 1294 00:48:41,570 --> 00:48:45,617 I think that the yield per acre 1295 00:48:45,617 --> 00:48:47,063 is an interesting idea. 1296 00:48:48,010 --> 00:48:49,043 The silviculture, 1297 00:48:49,043 --> 00:48:54,043 I would say isn't totally settled. 1298 00:48:54,690 --> 00:48:56,020 I think I alluded to it a little bit 1299 00:48:56,020 --> 00:48:57,810 when I was talking about that older style 1300 00:48:57,810 --> 00:49:00,453 of widely spaced, large crown trees, 1301 00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:06,680 but the issue with maximizing the number of, 1302 00:49:06,740 --> 00:49:08,660 Oh, I think I talked about it, 1303 00:49:08,660 --> 00:49:11,800 maximizing number of taps per acre, 1304 00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,440 is that you might find yourself 1305 00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:16,530 tapping smaller and smaller trees 1306 00:49:16,530 --> 00:49:19,510 and not paying attention to tree growth. 1307 00:49:19,510 --> 00:49:22,010 I'm not sure if that really answers your question. 1308 00:49:24,980 --> 00:49:27,530 Yes per acre is a good way 1309 00:49:27,530 --> 00:49:28,450 of approaching things, 1310 00:49:28,450 --> 00:49:29,870 but you also have to understand 1311 00:49:29,870 --> 00:49:33,150 the underlying patterns or distribution 1312 00:49:33,150 --> 00:49:34,640 of what size trees you have 1313 00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:37,090 so you don't end up in a scenario where 1314 00:49:38,270 --> 00:49:40,200 you've tapped the same trees for years, 1315 00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:41,680 and you don't have regeneration 1316 00:49:41,680 --> 00:49:44,620 coming to replace them, 1317 00:49:44,620 --> 00:49:47,480 or you're at such a low growth rate 1318 00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:50,970 that your yields go down and down and down 1319 00:49:50,970 --> 00:49:53,570 because you consistently hit 1320 00:49:53,570 --> 00:49:55,173 staying non-conductive wood. 1321 00:49:56,266 --> 00:49:59,230 I think I saw a note from Nicholas. 1322 00:49:59,230 --> 00:50:01,370 Is there a tree health classification, 1323 00:50:01,370 --> 00:50:04,890 like the MSCR in Quebec that you use 1324 00:50:04,890 --> 00:50:08,030 to inventory the health of the sugarbush? 1325 00:50:08,030 --> 00:50:09,630 Nicholas, 1326 00:50:09,630 --> 00:50:12,460 I'm not familiar with the MSCR actually, 1327 00:50:12,460 --> 00:50:14,990 but in forestry, 1328 00:50:14,990 --> 00:50:18,060 there's definitely vigor 1329 00:50:18,060 --> 00:50:20,330 and health measurements. 1330 00:50:20,330 --> 00:50:22,390 It's not as common 1331 00:50:22,390 --> 00:50:24,883 in a sugarbush inventory. 1332 00:50:25,980 --> 00:50:29,110 Typically it'll be a pretty simple just 1333 00:50:29,110 --> 00:50:31,893 what size tree and is it tappable? 1334 00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:36,350 I think much like 1335 00:50:36,350 --> 00:50:38,530 Jenny's question about the tapping shell 1336 00:50:38,530 --> 00:50:40,650 or how much conductive wood is there to tap 1337 00:50:40,650 --> 00:50:42,280 I think it's really 1338 00:50:43,120 --> 00:50:44,870 a tap is not a tap is not a tap, 1339 00:50:44,870 --> 00:50:46,970 just like a five inch tree 1340 00:50:46,970 --> 00:50:50,010 should not be added to the same bucket 1341 00:50:50,010 --> 00:50:52,590 as a 15 inch tree. 1342 00:50:52,590 --> 00:50:54,650 They just represent different potential 1343 00:50:54,650 --> 00:50:55,950 in terms of yield. 1344 00:50:55,950 --> 00:50:58,410 So an unhealthy tree, 1345 00:50:58,410 --> 00:51:01,160 there should be a way of identifying 1346 00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:03,580 and letting the landowner or the producer know 1347 00:51:03,580 --> 00:51:05,500 what proportion of their trees 1348 00:51:05,500 --> 00:51:07,173 might have compromised health. 1349 00:51:08,410 --> 00:51:09,721 But Nicholas, 1350 00:51:09,721 --> 00:51:13,010 I don't know how widespread 1351 00:51:13,010 --> 00:51:15,390 that type of measurement system is 1352 00:51:15,390 --> 00:51:16,670 in sugar bushes. 1353 00:51:16,670 --> 00:51:19,610 It depends largely on if it's a property 1354 00:51:19,610 --> 00:51:22,403 with a long-term forest management plan, 1355 00:51:23,380 --> 00:51:24,670 if that is brought up 1356 00:51:25,831 --> 00:51:27,143 in those documents. 1357 00:51:29,050 --> 00:51:30,880 Thanks for your question. 1358 00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:33,250 - Hey mark, this is Tony here. 1359 00:51:33,250 --> 00:51:34,790 I had a question for you. 1360 00:51:34,790 --> 00:51:36,780 I'm actually looking at a new property 1361 00:51:36,780 --> 00:51:39,270 and I've already done some sampling 1362 00:51:39,270 --> 00:51:41,680 with the prism method. 1363 00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:43,490 And so I've taken 1364 00:51:43,490 --> 00:51:45,630 about a hundred points actually. 1365 00:51:45,630 --> 00:51:48,600 And the average captains tap density 1366 00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:49,740 I'm getting is quite high, 1367 00:51:49,740 --> 00:51:53,690 about 105 to 110 taps an acre. 1368 00:51:53,690 --> 00:51:55,380 And it made sense 1369 00:51:55,380 --> 00:51:56,850 because there's lots of small trees 1370 00:51:56,850 --> 00:51:58,300 and pole what, right? 1371 00:51:58,300 --> 00:51:59,133 - Right. 1372 00:51:59,133 --> 00:52:02,250 - So the forest is just ready to start tapping, 1373 00:52:02,250 --> 00:52:04,480 but it doesn't have many mature trees. 1374 00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:06,100 Now trying to take that. 1375 00:52:06,100 --> 00:52:08,300 And then, so if we look at the, 1376 00:52:08,300 --> 00:52:09,793 what you were alluding to, 1377 00:52:10,810 --> 00:52:13,780 yield per diameter. 1378 00:52:13,780 --> 00:52:15,220 Yeah, I can take the 110 1379 00:52:15,220 --> 00:52:16,496 and just multiply it by, 1380 00:52:16,496 --> 00:52:19,050 0.25 gallons of tap to get a yield. 1381 00:52:19,050 --> 00:52:21,470 But, if there were big healthy trees, 1382 00:52:21,470 --> 00:52:23,283 I'd get more sap per tap. 1383 00:52:24,474 --> 00:52:26,860 So I'm trying to co-relate, 1384 00:52:26,860 --> 00:52:30,900 a smaller diameter size class forest 1385 00:52:30,900 --> 00:52:34,170 with let's say the average expected yield. 1386 00:52:34,170 --> 00:52:36,600 So all I'd have to do is like, 1387 00:52:36,600 --> 00:52:38,600 when I take that curve that you showed 1388 00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:40,220 in one of your first, 1389 00:52:40,220 --> 00:52:43,000 the correlation between sap per tap 1390 00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:44,470 and the diameter, 1391 00:52:44,470 --> 00:52:45,770 if I take those numbers, 1392 00:52:45,770 --> 00:52:47,380 I get ridiculously high yield 1393 00:52:47,380 --> 00:52:49,700 because they're like, 1394 00:52:49,700 --> 00:52:53,020 I think it was a hundred gallons per tap, 1395 00:52:53,020 --> 00:52:54,670 it's just out of the, 1396 00:52:54,670 --> 00:52:56,650 it's like ideal conditions. 1397 00:52:56,650 --> 00:52:58,130 So I'm trying to figure out 1398 00:52:58,130 --> 00:53:00,070 how can I make a factor 1399 00:53:00,070 --> 00:53:01,880 that would account for the fact 1400 00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:04,080 that my trees are smaller diameter. 1401 00:53:04,080 --> 00:53:05,540 - Right, right. 1402 00:53:05,540 --> 00:53:08,570 Well, and that's a good observation 1403 00:53:08,570 --> 00:53:12,950 that those numbers are based on ideal conditions. 1404 00:53:12,950 --> 00:53:13,983 I would say that, 1405 00:53:17,024 --> 00:53:22,024 you could discount by a certain percentage, 1406 00:53:23,770 --> 00:53:26,263 take the average diameter for that stand. 1407 00:53:27,540 --> 00:53:29,010 If you're measuring diameter, 1408 00:53:29,010 --> 00:53:30,950 if you know how many in each size class, 1409 00:53:30,950 --> 00:53:34,010 you could discount by a certain percent. 1410 00:53:34,010 --> 00:53:36,550 And it might be in the 5% per inch 1411 00:53:36,550 --> 00:53:37,570 diameter range. 1412 00:53:37,570 --> 00:53:38,920 We haven't really worked out 1413 00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:41,690 the relationship super strongly, 1414 00:53:41,690 --> 00:53:44,570 but I'm guessing it's in the five to 7% 1415 00:53:44,570 --> 00:53:46,070 per inch diameter range. 1416 00:53:46,070 --> 00:53:47,070 As you go larger, 1417 00:53:47,070 --> 00:53:49,630 you're gonna get progressively more sap. 1418 00:53:49,630 --> 00:53:52,130 So many factors could influence that, 1419 00:53:52,130 --> 00:53:55,060 vacuum intensity at the taphole, 1420 00:53:55,060 --> 00:53:56,990 sanitation. 1421 00:53:56,990 --> 00:53:59,740 All those things are gonna influence that. 1422 00:53:59,740 --> 00:54:02,890 But the relationship like in that graph 1423 00:54:02,890 --> 00:54:04,470 that I put on earlier 1424 00:54:04,470 --> 00:54:06,243 shows it's fairly linear, 1425 00:54:07,710 --> 00:54:09,740 but it's in that five to 7%, 1426 00:54:09,740 --> 00:54:12,440 per inch DBH range. 1427 00:54:12,440 --> 00:54:14,590 And then the other issue is, management wise, 1428 00:54:14,590 --> 00:54:16,110 if you have a lot of small trees, 1429 00:54:16,110 --> 00:54:20,520 the temptation is to maybe remove some 1430 00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:22,030 and try to pick the winners 1431 00:54:22,030 --> 00:54:23,070 that you think are gonna be 1432 00:54:23,070 --> 00:54:25,210 the crop trees of the future, 1433 00:54:25,210 --> 00:54:26,043 depending on, 1434 00:54:26,043 --> 00:54:27,990 again, without seeing the stand 1435 00:54:27,990 --> 00:54:29,970 or seeing the stand data, 1436 00:54:29,970 --> 00:54:30,803 it's hard to say, 1437 00:54:30,803 --> 00:54:34,100 but it can be tempting to take out too much. 1438 00:54:34,100 --> 00:54:35,650 There are a lot of things that can contribute, 1439 00:54:35,650 --> 00:54:40,030 to take small trees out of the equation, 1440 00:54:40,030 --> 00:54:43,150 either natural dynamics or what have you. 1441 00:54:43,150 --> 00:54:45,960 So it's good to flag some, 1442 00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:48,060 ones that look like good winners, 1443 00:54:48,060 --> 00:54:48,893 but when they're in that 1444 00:54:48,893 --> 00:54:50,590 really small pole size, 1445 00:54:50,590 --> 00:54:51,930 it might be a little small 1446 00:54:51,930 --> 00:54:53,680 to start doing any real 1447 00:54:53,680 --> 00:54:54,960 pre-commercial type work 1448 00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:57,150 to try to focus on the winners. 1449 00:54:57,150 --> 00:54:59,040 Stem form is probably the biggest thing 1450 00:54:59,040 --> 00:55:00,460 that you would use to decide 1451 00:55:00,460 --> 00:55:02,653 whether or not to take a tree out. 1452 00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:09,217 Let's see, Dave Matt says, 1453 00:55:09,217 --> 00:55:10,530 "Knowing that the goal is to have 1454 00:55:10,530 --> 00:55:13,290 at least 25% non maple in the stand, 1455 00:55:13,290 --> 00:55:16,020 should the inventory include non maple stems 1456 00:55:16,020 --> 00:55:19,610 to give one an idea of species composition 1457 00:55:19,610 --> 00:55:22,320 and total number of trees per acre?" 1458 00:55:22,320 --> 00:55:24,510 Yeah, that's a great point, Dave, 1459 00:55:24,510 --> 00:55:27,340 and it's sort of points out that 1460 00:55:27,340 --> 00:55:29,240 if you're just looking at taps, 1461 00:55:29,240 --> 00:55:30,920 you're ignoring, 1462 00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:33,100 what else is growing there. 1463 00:55:33,100 --> 00:55:35,280 Obviously in a stand 1464 00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:37,410 that's naturally heavy to maple, 1465 00:55:37,410 --> 00:55:38,760 it's gonna be mostly maple, 1466 00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:42,290 but we know that there's lots of other species 1467 00:55:42,290 --> 00:55:43,123 in the woods. 1468 00:55:43,123 --> 00:55:45,500 So it would be a good idea 1469 00:55:45,500 --> 00:55:47,750 to have a more comprehensive inventory 1470 00:55:47,750 --> 00:55:50,790 and one that would align with other goals 1471 00:55:50,790 --> 00:55:51,870 besides tapping 1472 00:55:51,870 --> 00:55:55,830 like long-term forest management goals. 1473 00:55:55,830 --> 00:55:58,120 And keeping that diversity especially, 1474 00:55:58,120 --> 00:55:59,220 it's a requirement. 1475 00:55:59,220 --> 00:56:00,893 If you're a certified organic, 1476 00:56:01,870 --> 00:56:03,860 you would wanna make sure that you are 1477 00:56:05,020 --> 00:56:07,133 reaching that threshold. 1478 00:56:08,710 --> 00:56:09,820 Good question. 1479 00:56:09,820 --> 00:56:11,463 Any other questions? 1480 00:56:13,440 --> 00:56:15,720 Appreciate everyone's time and attention 1481 00:56:15,720 --> 00:56:17,363 and their questions. 1482 00:56:18,326 --> 00:56:20,350 There's a fair amount of cover. 1483 00:56:20,350 --> 00:56:22,720 There are lots of resources, 1484 00:56:22,720 --> 00:56:27,720 if you wanna develop your own inventory method, 1485 00:56:28,180 --> 00:56:29,250 to get a little better handle 1486 00:56:29,250 --> 00:56:30,670 on how to use the angle gauge, 1487 00:56:30,670 --> 00:56:32,660 there are definitely some tutorials 1488 00:56:34,230 --> 00:56:35,063 really rooted more 1489 00:56:35,063 --> 00:56:36,340 in the forestry side of things 1490 00:56:36,340 --> 00:56:38,490 but if you have questions in the future, 1491 00:56:38,490 --> 00:56:41,636 don't hesitate to reach out to me, 1492 00:56:41,636 --> 00:56:44,070 for help finding those resources. 1493 00:56:44,070 --> 00:56:45,660 I would like to say that, 1494 00:56:45,660 --> 00:56:48,060 we're continuing this webinar series. 1495 00:56:48,060 --> 00:56:51,210 In two weeks, we have another one coming up 1496 00:56:51,210 --> 00:56:54,723 and that's on sap-only Enterprises. 1497 00:56:55,890 --> 00:56:57,750 I don't have the list in front of me, 1498 00:56:57,750 --> 00:56:59,730 but I can pull that right up. 1499 00:56:59,730 --> 00:57:02,060 - I could pull it up if you don't mind. 1500 00:57:02,060 --> 00:57:03,210 This is Mark and I just wanna thank 1501 00:57:03,210 --> 00:57:04,870 Mark Isselhardt for a great presentation. 1502 00:57:04,870 --> 00:57:06,700 Always great content 1503 00:57:06,700 --> 00:57:09,150 and always presented well. 1504 00:57:10,540 --> 00:57:12,310 The outlook as people start to get off, 1505 00:57:12,310 --> 00:57:14,900 sap-only Enterprises on September 15th 1506 00:57:14,900 --> 00:57:16,920 with Chris Lindgren. 1507 00:57:16,920 --> 00:57:18,170 The next webinar after that 1508 00:57:18,170 --> 00:57:20,070 is Wednesday, September 29th. 1509 00:57:20,070 --> 00:57:22,360 That'll be me having a discussion 1510 00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:23,780 about binding contracts 1511 00:57:23,780 --> 00:57:26,170 and binding legal agreements. 1512 00:57:26,170 --> 00:57:27,640 Then on October 13th, 1513 00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:29,850 we've got Dr. Tony, D'Amato 1514 00:57:29,850 --> 00:57:32,340 talking about maple forests and carbon, 1515 00:57:32,340 --> 00:57:34,860 and then the initial calendar ends up 1516 00:57:34,860 --> 00:57:36,340 on October 27th 1517 00:57:36,340 --> 00:57:38,570 with the presentation I'll be giving 1518 00:57:38,570 --> 00:57:39,990 with attorney Jess Phelps 1519 00:57:39,990 --> 00:57:42,730 on Northeast forest land tax programs 1520 00:57:42,730 --> 00:57:44,340 and tax abatement. 1521 00:57:44,340 --> 00:57:45,765 Sounds like Mark has given 1522 00:57:45,765 --> 00:57:46,670 a little bit of a teaser 1523 00:57:46,670 --> 00:57:48,280 that there may be some ad-on sessions 1524 00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:49,440 later on in the fall. 1525 00:57:49,440 --> 00:57:52,370 So we'll be watching in earnest 1526 00:57:52,370 --> 00:57:54,913 as those calendar dates become available. 1527 00:57:55,960 --> 00:57:56,793 - Great. 1528 00:57:56,793 --> 00:57:59,180 Well, thanks everyone for tuning in. 1529 00:57:59,180 --> 00:58:01,320 And if you know someone 1530 00:58:01,320 --> 00:58:03,530 who missed out on tonight's presentation 1531 00:58:03,530 --> 00:58:05,910 or some of the earlier ones in the series, 1532 00:58:05,910 --> 00:58:07,170 we post them 1533 00:58:07,170 --> 00:58:10,180 on the maplemanager.org website. 1534 00:58:10,180 --> 00:58:11,350 And we also have recordings 1535 00:58:11,350 --> 00:58:13,610 from last year's series. 1536 00:58:13,610 --> 00:58:15,380 So go check that out 1537 00:58:15,380 --> 00:58:17,220 for more information. 1538 00:58:17,220 --> 00:58:19,636 And with that, I'll say thanks to Mark, 1539 00:58:19,636 --> 00:58:21,390 for doing the back of the house stuff. 1540 00:58:21,390 --> 00:58:24,760 And we will see you all soon, take care. 1541 00:58:24,760 --> 00:58:25,910 - All right, goodnight.